The Nazara Chronicles
by Metacon Defender
Summary: The inusannon harvest led to the birth of Nazara. They left behind the synthetic warriors later known as Metacon, to warn the next cycle, but are largely unheeded. The Prothean Empire struggles to survive the machines while the Metacon seek another end to the cycle. Can the Metacon end millennia of hostility to unite the galaxy against the Reapers? (Mostly complete now.)
1. Prologue

Nazar year 44,990 [27,355 BPC (Before the Prothean Civilisation)] i.e. 97,818 BCE

Galactic civilisation had fallen. The great abominations from dark space came through the relay nexus, closed down the network so the relays would not activate for any but an abomination, from there defeating defending forces in detail before moving on to the next populated world to catch it unawares, and within thirty years the civilisations of the galaxy were gone. No part of the galaxy had contact with the others and were helpless to warn or aid one another. Ninety percent of the population of half a trillion sapients were dead, most of the rest had suffered mental effects from the war, and what little information had been gathered about the abominations filled the survivors with despair.

The abominations could warp minds, leading organic sapients to betray their own homeworlds to them or leaders to surrender their people. They had weapons that could easily destroy the most powerful and advanced warships of the era, and required sustained firepower from multiple dreadnoughts to destroy, after which their wreckage often retained its ability to warp minds and remained extremely dangerous for scientists and engineers to study. They refused to entertain surrender offers or any other form of negotiation, nor did they even seem to believe that they were at war, only a harvest, despite being fired upon by warships and orbital, lunar, and planet based nuclear, particle, and antimatter weapons at every heavily populated planet they approached. It was found, at the cost of many of the last surviving soldiers, that the abominations not only warped minds, but had found a way to preserve minds while destroying the bodies to create more of themselves or turn them into mindless metallic husks. The spacefaring species of the galaxy were doomed to die fighting or become enslaved to an abomination or worse, become an abomination or part of one.

Even more horrifyingly, it was discovered that this was not the first, the tenth, or even the thousandth time this had happened in the galaxy. Evidence from the few destroyed abominations indicated that cycles of destruction had happened at least hundreds of times in the past few tens of millions of years, and most likely for hundreds of millions of years. These abominations had been coming to the galaxy at regular intervals to destroy civilisation and make more of themselves and wait for primitive societies to advance technologically to do the same to the next species to develop civilisation when they returned. The abominations' motives were unknown, but reproduction was the most common one. The discovery that an abomination had been made from their own people indicated that this was the method by which they reproduced, they consequently reproduced at an exceedingly slow rate, and that they were essentially galactic predators whose prey were intelligent species they needed to harvest to create the most powerful abominations for later harvests, but no data on how the abominations came to be or when. Certainly beings as advanced as the abominations' technological superiority indicated them to be would lack any need for slaves, being capable of using machines for manual labour, and would be above such barbarism as destruction for mere enjoyment or wiping out an entire species that was no threat to them without some sort of rational interest. The abominations were clearly intelligent, as far above spacefaring organics as they themselves were above prokaryotic life.

With the fate of the galaxy sealed, the last few remaining soldiers and scientists, lacking the numbers for sustainable defence, let alone major offensives, instead of giving in to despair or the search for a glorious death, chose to seek a way to ensure that when the abominations returned, the species of the galaxy would be prepared for their arrival. They designed a new class of advanced bipedal mechanical bodies intended to be controlled by a brain removed from its body and wired to the mech's computers. The brain would be encased in a quantum-locked container in the most protected part of the mech, which would be filled with nutrient gel surrounding the brain to carry vital substances fed through a tube underneath while active, through which its connections to the mech's computer also ran. This quantum lock was also intended to block the radiation used by the abominations in their mind warping process, which altered organic brains to serve them. A VI, a non-self-aware virtual intelligence capable of mimicking most functions of an artificial intelligence but lacking the true sapience of an AI, running on the mech, monitored brain activity but did not generally interfere unless its monitoring of brain activity indicated that the mind had been warped by an abomination, in which case it would use various means of combating the abominations' influence, including similar active modifications to the limbic system to those employed by the abominations in order to attempt to restore the original mind. Although this last resort often caused more serious brain damage, this was easier to repair with cloned stem cells than the shifted loyalties caused by exposure to abominations or their remains. Despite the enhancements, the brains still needed to sleep, though not as often as an unmodified brain, and could hibernate for extended periods to conserve nutrients or the mechs' energy for the millennia they needed to remain concealed from detection by the abominations, who left behind the abomination made from their species when they returned to whatever part of dark space they had come from after the destruction of the last holdouts for a final sweep and periodic observation of the galaxy.

Freed of such organic concerns as the need for a habitable atmosphere or pressure, as long as the mech's filtration system could extract sufficient oxygen for their brains, or failing that, put them into stasis, the synthetic hybrids of organic brain and mechanical body hid from the abominations, not in stasis pods underground like so many other cycles, nor underwater like the legendary Leviathans, but by fleeing aboard their people's last ships (or anything else still deployable into space near the end of the cycle, such as old missile tubes or replacement communications buoys) at faster than light, or if unavailable, very high sublight where time distortion meant that when they found a safe place to hide the abominations would be at least centuries gone, into parts of the galaxy notoriously hostile to sapient life. Remote planets with dangerous atmospheres or extremes of heat, cold or gravity beyond organic tolerance, as well as barren moons, asteroid fields and nebulae, became their favoured hiding places. There they could hibernate to conserve energy and elude detection by the abominations while waiting for them to leave. They could also harvest plentiful resources, especially metal oxides as they required the metals for repairing their bodies, including their VI chips, and the oxygen atoms could be stripped to provide for their brains.

Thus, dispersed through the galaxy's most hostile regions into groups ranging in size from dozens to thousands, in hives where no intelligence would seek out organic or quasi-organic life, a synthetic army millions strong formed from organic brains and mechanical bodies survived. Most of them hibernated for extended periods, only coming out within a century of when the VI predicted its ability to sustain the brains in suspended animation would be depleted, to harvest resources to recharge before hibernating again. A handful would construct scouting vessels and leave to seek locations for constructing long range space communications arrays and building shipyards, preferably far from their hives where such construction could lead to their detection and destruction by an abomination. Only when enough time had passed for new spacefaring civilisations to arise would looking for contacts be worthwhile.

Nazar year 90,870 [2752 PCE (Prothean Civilisation Era)] (c. 65,000 BCE)

The synthetics awoke from their hibernation in large groups, leaving their hives to the locations their scouts had selected for constructing their long range communications arrays and shipyards. Shipyards tended to be constructed in inhospitable areas similar to the ones their hives were located in to minimise the risk of discovery and destruction, but the long range communications array would have to be built in deep space light years from the nearest star to minimise interference.

Their ships initially were small, lightly armoured cargo freighters and lightly armed stealth frigates that belied their status as the remnant of a powerful ancient spacefaring civilisation with tehs of thousands of years more advanced technology. Cargo freighters were favoured for not only their utility in collecting the resources the synthetics needed to survive and maintain their vessels and infrastructure but their ubiquity in trade. While the synthetics did not need to trade as they had no needs they could not provide for themselves by harvesting local resources, they had done so as organics and found it facilitated the development of peaceful relations. Desiring to proliferate their technology to the newly spacefaring organic races, they typically offered advanced technology in trade for a few examples of the organics' ships, which the synthetics analysed to gauge the organics' current technological level. Other items the synthetics received in trade for their technology included mining equipment, marginally useful as the synthetics could use it to disguise their own mining operations from agents of the abominations or more aggressive organics, and ancient alien artifacts.

Some organics were friendly to synthetics and welcomed their assistance. Those organics who did not pose a threat to the synthetics were typically allowed to determine their own paths, and often traded for technology from the synthetics and received information about the great abominations that had been to the galaxy every few tens of millennia for tens of thousands of millennia. While a few sapients of various species did believe the warnings, mainly traders and a few astute military personnel, organic leaders were difficult to convince to prepare for events centuries ahead let alone hundreds of centuries and typically buried any information in archives where few would look for warnings of galactic peril, if they did not outright classify it secret or worse, destroy it fearing it might give rise to end-times cults welcoming the inevitable end or spark wars or other civil disorders. Those who mistrusted the synthetics would also usually be left alone, the synthetics being reluctant to risk casualties among their limited numbers would be slower to provide warnings and information they considered unlikely to be believed especially if it would be taken as a hostile act. The most dangerous were those who feared and hated synthetics in general and would not believe anything they said, as those impeded efforts to promote peaceful relations.


	2. Chapter 1: Densorin Diplomacy

A species of green, brown or bronze scaled amphibious bipeds, the densorin discovered spaceflight in roughly 600 PCE but even as late as 3000 PCE they remained largely confined to their homeworld, Krotar, a dozen or so settled and partially terraformed worlds, and a handful of observation colonies within twenty light-years. In 2800 PCE, the densorin had first contact with an alien species, a bipedal race of giants called the oravores who had four eyes like the densorin. Their government proved quite aggressive, requiring vast amounts of resources for their colossal population, most of whom were starving while their military grew ever stronger. The oravores raided densorin colonies, or for that matter any other colonies near their borders, including Prothean ones, for slaves and to steal technology and resources. The densorin military, while possessing starships and weapons more advanced than those of the oravores, lacked their bellicose neighbours' population, planets, or biotics in the proportions the oravores had, and while the homeworld was safe, protected by the bulk of the densorin fleet and massive planet-based and moon-based mass accelerators and particle cannons capable of handily defeating a vastly more numerous invasion force, their handful of colonies and scientific research facilities and personnel were not. It was during this state of war, in 2850 PCE, that the densorin discovered a machine race while hiding from a fleet of oravore pirates and slavers.

This time the pirates had a dreadnought, which came as a surprise and indicated the war would become more costly for both sides. The densorin had never seen oravore dreadnoughts before, pirates typically using mainly frigates with the occasional heavy cruiser as backup firepower when needed, the oravore navy using mostly destroyers and light cruisers with the occasional heavy carrier. Though the dreadnoughts would be more difficult to defeat, they were no more technologically advanced than the rest of the fleet.

Hiding in an asteroid field aboard his damaged vessel to avoid the scans of the oravore dreadnought probing the field, Captain T'Karus V'Kan of the densorin light cruiser Z'Nal, tasked with defending the remote scientific colony of J'Grul, noticed something else hiding on the side of the asteroid where he was, or more likely on top of the asteroid's surface. It appeared to be a derelict vessel similar in size to the densorin cruiser but more heavily armed, similar to one explorers searching for ancient artifacts had seen among the wreckage of the ancient battlefield in the orbit of Angana. This meant it had to be an ancient thoi'han or inusannon warship. Its technology appeared to be more advanced than that of the Angana wrecks, but a scan of the vessel revealed it was a good twenty thousand years less ancient than the vessels which had fought at that battle. Unsurprisingly, it had no life signs that the scan showed, but it appeared to be surprisingly intact for a ship well over thirty thousand years old, better preserved than the nearly sixty thousand year old wrecks of Angana.

"That looks like a thoi'han heavy cruiser," said Captain V'Kan.

"Too small for a heavy cruiser," said First Officer Commander K'Valus T'Cor, reducing power to non-essential systems to reduce the chances of the oravore ship finding the Z'Nal. "About the size of the older inusannon wrecks at Angana, that G'Zala class light cruisers like the Z'Nal are based on. We won't know more unless we explore."

"You want to explore an ancient wreck while there is an oravore dreadnought looking for us?" asked the captain incredulously.

"With our systems powered down, we aren't giving off much of a radiation signature," replied T'Cor. "I can keep us hidden if we get close to the derelict. Even if the dreadnought comes around this side of the asteroid, their scanners are not advanced enough to tell us from the derelict if we're close enough. Besides, if there is ancient technology there, we cannot risk it falling into the hands of the oravores."

"All right, but I want the main cannon and our remaining missile bays prepped to try to take out their main gun if it gets too close," said Captain V'Kan. "Commander T'Cor, prep an away team, but don't take any of my tactical or weapons officers."

"Won't need them, Captain. Permission to take an infantry squad with me?" The vessel might not have life signs, but its hull was surprisingly resistant to scans, clearly more advanced than anything currently used in the galaxy. They didn't know if hostile intelligence or oravore pirates were aboard.

"Granted. Take Lieutenant D'Nafra R'Tak with you. I will also need at least two engineers, one to oversee damage control conducting repairs and one to figure out the fastest we can power up our systems without frying them, doing other damage to the vessel, or exceeding the physical capabilities of our available materials."

Within an hour, twenty densorin wearing armoured space suits, the six of them led by Lieutenant R'Tak carrying mass accelerator machine guns, and the other fourteen armed with megawatt UV laser pistols, landed on the asteroid and approached the derelict, which appeared to have crashed on the asteroid. They opened an airlock and Commander T'Cor took the front, activating a light on the front of his helmet and drawing his pistol. R'Tak activated her light and raised her heavy weapon as the two officers led the way for the densorin crew.

"We don't know what we're going to find here, so be ready for anything," said T'Cor as they advanced down a corridor. "R'Tak, Captain V'Kan ordered me to take you. Is there something you know about this ship?"

"Inusannon light cruiser, unknown class. Approximately two hundred missile tubes, two main cannons in opposite directions apparently designed to fire a particle weapon of some sort, too small to be mass accelerator weapons. Appears to be a greatly upgraded version of a class of light cruiser discovered by a remote exploration survey team on Angana in 1200 PCE of which several examples were found. From the size, crewed fifty to sixty."

"I didn't know you knew ancient vessels that well," T'Cor replied, not expecting his infantry squad leader to know much about vessels. If he had been ordered to bring her, he thought her combat skills might have been deemed useful. R'Tak had been born and raised in the colony of J'Grul to scientists and raised with a scientific mindset, and most densorin studied at least one science in detail during their lives, but T'Cor had her pegged as more of a physicist or astronomer than a ship expert.

The crew continued exploring the ship. Signage in ancient script that none alive could read appeared throughout the ship, accompanied by arrows pointing in different directions when the corridors crossed.

"Let's see if we can't find power," said T'Cor.

"Power? We don't even know what kind of power source this thing takes," said R'Tak.

"We'll find that out when we figure out where the power room is. I think this lightning bolt glyph refers to the power room," said T'Cor. He was no expert in ancient languages, but what else was a lightning bolt looking glyph going to mean on a starship? He followed the arrow indicated by the glyph he believed to be for power and approached a door.

R'Tak and her squad followed, with the science and tech crew bringing up the rear. If T'Cor did something stupid and got himself killed, R'Tak would order the survey team to flee while she dealt with whatever danger arose before fleeing as well.

"Are you sure that lightning bolt sign means power? And not danger?" she asked.

"Danger, I think, is the skull glyph. At least I think it's a skull. I'm not so sure what inusannon skulls look like," T'Cor said as he tried to open the door. Failing that, he used his omni-tool to generate a surge of power to the door panel, causing it to slide open very rapidly. He entered and R'Tak followed.

The power room was dark, like the rest of the ship. Thirty-two dark-painted mechanical bipeds, similar in size and general shape to the densorin but with what looked like metallic tentacles on their heads below what looked like powered-off lights, stood at attention against the walls, eight on each side of the room, unmoving, apparently completely inactive. Weapons resembling particle or mass accelerator rifles stood next to some of the mechs.

"What are these?" asked T'Cor, scanning one of the mechs with his omni-tool. "Interesting..."

R'Tak shifted her machine gun as she heard movement from behind. It was the densorin researchers behind the infantry, filing into the power room to scan the mechs and the power core. Lieutenant V'Kana J'Kul, the head technical specialist, scanned a mech with her omni-tool as well. Her response was far more erudite than that of her First Officer.

"Bodies are composed of a metallic alloy, sixty-one percent titanium, twenty-two percent vanadium, and sixteen percent iron with trace amounts of manganese, copper, molybdenum and tin. Multiple redundant virtual intelligence processing units suggest extremely robust engineering and the capacity for tens of zettabytes of data."

"Think we can activate one?" asked T'Cor.

"Probably," J'Kul replied. She attempted a more intense scan to locate the mech's power core. It was inside the chest, atop a larger structure she could not scan through but speculated might be its central processing unit as she could not find one with her scanner. A tube and wires came from under the structure, connecting it with the rest of the mech's systems, fueling her suspicion that the structure through which her omni-tool was unable to scan must be the CPU. "Glad the power core's not as hard to find as the CPU," she said, using her omni-tool to activate the mech's power core.

The mech's eyes lit up, two bright blue lights emanating from its head, contemplating the being who had supplied power to the core. With the armoured space suit, the mech could not identify its species, just that it was a bipedal one.

R'Tak pointed her weapon at the mech, ready to destroy it if it posed a danger to J'Kul or any other member of the crew. As if understanding the threat, the mech raised its arms. A particle rifle lay next to the mech, but it made no move for the weapon apparently put in a position to be quickly reached if needed. The mech spoke. Its voice was deep, unmistakably male, and it was speaking an ancient and long-extinct language.

None of the crew had heard the ancient language spoken before, nor anyone alive. Their translators were useless. The mech, however, recorded every word it heard and within hours of efforts at communication aided by J'Kul's linguistic background and the mech's own linguistic VI, the mech was able to passably communicate in the language the densorin crew were using and their translators became slightly more effective.

"I am Lieutenant Osik Tav, chief security officer of the cruiser Tumkar, of the Inazar Stellar Confederation," the mech said.

"Inazar?" asked Commander T'Cor.

"The people of Nazar," replied Tav. "We called ourselves the inazar. According to my, or rather, my VI's, interpretation of your language, you call us the inusannon, possibly from a misreading of worn or degraded syllabic glyphs referring to our planet and species."

"How did your ship get here?" asked J'Kul.

"We fled from an enemy that ruthlessly destroyed our planets," said Lieutenant Tav. "The abominations came through the relay nexus. The mass relays ceased to activate for us. Systems on opposite ends of relays were separated, helpless to reinforce or warn of attacks. We were not a warlike people at all. Our last interstellar war, with the imperialistic thoi'han, was many generations before the invasion. By the time the abominations attacked us, we and the thoi'han had been at peace for far longer than we once warred, and even had a joint scientific research facility on the relay nexus. But we were cut off from our allies and from our own people when the relays shut down. On the verge of extinction, we had our brains removed from our bodies and put into these mechs in order to survive in environments where the abominations would not look for us."

J'Kul gaped at the idea of a species being pushed so far to survive that they would turn themselves into machines. So this was how the inusannon, or whatever they called themselves, became extinct... pursued by machines and eventually becoming machines themselves to avoid the machines. Incomprehensible.

"Tell us about these abominations," said T'Cor.

Tav turned his gaze to the commander. "Their motives are unknown to us. They shut down the relays, cut our planets off from each other, and warped our brains to turn against our own people, luring them into captivity or informing the abominations of our hidden defences. When they occupied a world, they impaled the colonists on spikes, which carried nanites into their bodies to turn them into metallic husks who fought us. I cannot tell much more. If our commanding officer, Captain Nosik Kal, survived, he has more information."

Tav approached a taller and more imposing mech with three blue optical lights instead of two like those of Tav and the other mechs. "Brain needs nutrient paste," he said worriedly. "Still alive, or at least his nanite supply can still restore his brain functions as long as it gets something to do it with. Supply stock is down the corridor you just came from to get here, third door on the right. I also require sustenance, so bring a crate, enough for all of us."

J'Kul followed Tav's instructions, and R'Tak ordered two machine-gun armed troopers to follow her, just in case. Finding no danger in the storage room, the troopers helped J'Kul carry crates of various substances, not being sure which was the nutrient paste. When they got back to the room with the mechs, Tav identified the nutrient paste among the supplies and infused the tall three-lighted mech with nutrient paste before similarly feeding himself with another tube. The tall mech's VI booted up and signaled the organic brain within to wake. It took a few tense minutes, but Captain Nosik Kal awakened.

"What are you uploading to my VI, Lieutenant?" asked Captain Kal as Lieutenant Tav withdrew his omni-tool, having begun to upload when he completed the nutrient infusion.

"A language database compiled by speaking to these densorin, Captain," replied Tav. "It is incomplete, but should expand as you speak to our discoverers. With your permission, I would like to awaken our engineers next to attempt to repair our ship, or failing that, evacuate to the densorin vessel adjacent to ours."

"Granted, Lieutenant." Tav used the same procedures to awaken the rest of the crew, beginning with engineers and technicians to assess the damage to their own vessel before moving to other command officers and his own security.

Captain Kal turned to Commander T'Cor, his command and control VI assessing the strength of the team. Six machine gunners, fourteen technical and command staff armed with pistols, armoured space suits that would take sustained firepower from the mass accelerator rifles but be much more vulnerable to particle weaponry. "Captain Nosik Kal, commanding officer of the Zikan class cruiser Tumkar."

"K'Valus T'Cor, first officer of the G'Zala class cruiser Z'Nal, which is adjacent to your vessel, where our Captain T'Karus V'Kan waits for us. You appeared to have crashed on an asteroid and we stopped to explore the wreck, not expecting survivors."

"What do you intend to do with us?" asked Captain Kal.

"If we can get you onto our cruiser and away from the oravore dreadnought... it will be up to Captain V'Kan, but you're a first contact and a neutral power so we will attempt to get you to a neutral planet unless you have another destination in mind," replied T'Cor. "How many of you were aboard the Tumkar when you left?"

"Two hundred fifty-six," Kal replied.

"It will be a tight squeeze," said T'Cor. "G'Zala class cruisers only hold a crew of one hundred and eight."

"Our forms do not require the freedom of movement yours do to the same degree. We can be packed several dozen to a crew quarters room," said Kal. "If we can bring our computers online, we can assess the strength of the oravore dreadnought."

"But doing so will let them know we're here and actively scanning," T'Cor replied. "How difficult would it be to get your engines running again?"

"Our supply of mass distorter is exhausted," said Kal, scanning the power core. "FTL not possible. I will not be able to determine more until the computers are online, but this vessel appears to have sustained structural damage consistent with an asteroid impact. The power core shut down as a safety measure, and attempting to restart it would cause the loss of remaining hull integrity." Focusing on one of the mechs Tav had awakened, Kal ordered, "Lieutenant Zuk, reroute power conduits away from damaged areas of the vessel and bring our computers online. I want to access the galactic information network and know more about these densorin, and the oravores... and whatever else is happening in this galaxy."

"Yes, Captain," said a female voice from the mech. She gave orders to some other engineer mechs to assist her. The mechs began moving power conduits toward the computers, taken from exposed parts of the ship.

"Lieutenant Tav, take a security team to move emergency bulkheads into place to seal off areas exposed to the asteroid. If we do get this vessel moving, we don't want anyone being vented into space. Sergeant Laz, secure our cultural and historical artifacts, wake the rest of the crew, and prepare for possible evacuation to the Z'Nal. Commander Nur, go to the Z'Nal, establish first contact with the densorin, and bring us a tactical analysis of their ship." Finished issuing orders and watching his officers leave and his own first officer go to continue first contact, Captain Kal turned back to T'Cor, who was using his suit communicator to warn V'Kan that a heavily armed mech was going to be asking to board.

"We will be able to communicate much more easily when our computers are operational."

T'Cor smiled. "We will need to deal with the dreadnought some way or another."

Kal looked down at T'Cor with his glowing lights. "I have an idea. From scanning power conduits I can tell our weapons are mostly offline, only our port-side point defences are operational, but if I can get a comm link open to the oravores I can distract them while you flee with our personnel and artifacts."

"They would plunder your vessel," said T'Cor. The computers awoke with a hum as soon as he spoke, the conduits rerouted and bulkheads sealed against the breaches to prevent loss of remaining hull integrity.

"Computers online," said Lieutenant Zuk. "Downloading information about the densorin and oravores. Densorin are a scientifically advanced species evolved from amphibians, and while spacefaring do not typically build colonies outside of standard FTL range, with the mass relays being used primarily by traders and explorers. Oravores are a physically large species evolved from reptilians and due to their size and population figures, they require almost constant acquisition of large resource stocks from beyond their native cluster and are ruthlessly expansionistic. Permission to scan the nearby cruiser?"

"Granted," Captain Kal replied.

"Bring comms online," said Zuk. "I think we should have the option to reply if they hail us."

"Good idea, and analyse their computers to see if they can handle a data transfer to their vessel. If they can not, we may have to bring our own computers aboard their vessel so that the pirates do not take them."

The engineers working underneath the computers managed to get ship to ship communications online and hail the Z'Nal just as a damage control team on the Z'Nal heard a communication from outside an airlock near where they were patrolling. When they opened it, a mech of a design they had never seen before identified itself as Commander Vekra Nur, first officer of the cruiser Tumkar, which they assumed was the name of the derelict near the part of the asteroid where they were hiding from the oravore dreadnought that had the crew on heightened alert. The mech certainly was not of oravore design, their mechs tending to be much larger and more like intelligent mobile weapons platforms, so was taken aboard under armed escort.

Within a minute, the mech commander was explaining its, or rather, her, the voice was unmistakably feminine, history and culture to Captain T'Karus V'Kan in the Z'Nal's command bridge while the communications officer, Lieutanant Commander K'Vala Z'Naf commanded the bridge in the absence of both the captain and first officer. She was also communicating with Captain Nosik Kal, who had no sooner given the order for his crew to evacuate to the Z'Nal did Lieutenant Zuk request permission to scan the oravore dreadnought, which she had been reluctant to do prior to knowing more about the tactical situation though understanding the need for information about what they and their new allies were facing. With most of his crew already heading out of the ship to the Z'Nal, he agreed, despite thinking that the densorin already possessed information on the oravore dreadnought due to years of war.

The oravore dreadnought moved closer to the asteroid, knowing there was something there and its captain, Z'Kavnil Tokmasg, one of the wealthiest and most feared pirates of the sector, thinking the densorin had done something as stupid as actively scan a vessel from which they were hiding. Untrained in tactical situations and heavily reliant on his new dreadnought's weapons to force surrenders to acquire slaves like the hundreds of thousands on the Ostrex itself being held while the dreadnought acquired more slaves and other cargo for transport to oravore planets, Tokmasg closed in with the asteroid, noticing the derelict, which was still actively scanning his dreadnought.

Aboard the Z'Nal, alarms blared as Captain V'Kan rushed to the bridge, with the mech Commander Nur still in tow. Having had the information about the Z'Nal patched to her as soon as the lieutenants got the Tumkar's computers running and finished scanning the Z'Nal, Commander Nur had some sage advice for the densorin captain.

"The oravore dreadnought can take down your shields with one shot. It is ten times the size of the cruiser. If you allow me to recalibrate the shields, I can draw more power from propulsion and other non-critical systems," said Commander Nur. "We would be able to withstand two, perhaps even three shots, long enough to neutralise the main cannon and seriously degrade the dreadnought's firepower."

"Will weapons be affected?" asked V'Kan.

"There might be a delay in recharge time to the mass accelerator turrets and fusion cannon as the shields drain more power, so I recommend bring all available firepower to bear on the enemy's main gun very rapidly and charging the systems as soon as the shields raise. Charging weapons may drain some power from shields if done rapidly," Nur replied.

"Perform your modifications, Commander Nur. Lieutenant S'Ganth, help the commander boost our shields. I still want to get us out of here alive."

While Commander Nur worked with the densorin lieutenant to boost the shields, her captain back on the Tumkar hailed the oravore dreadnought.

"I am Captain Nosik Kal of the inazar cruiser Tumkar," said the three-lighted mech.

"I am Z'Kavnil Tokmasg of the dreadnought Ostrex," said the hulking green-skinned reptilian brute on the dreadnought's bridge. "I am the most feared pirate in the Outer Systems and have never heard of the inazar."

"You had no idea what our kind calls itself," replied Captain Kal. "This cycle knows us as inusannon."

An inusannon ship. Tokmasg smiled widely, baring his fangs. "Ancients. Your vessel will enrich our scientific knowledge and with it, the oravores will rule the galaxy!"

"Not for long before the Great Abominations take you. You still have long to prepare if you want there to continue to be oravores in another fifty thousand years."

"Your continued existence after the death of your worlds is the great abomination. What could aliens possibly do to the mighty oravores?" Tokmasg snorted derisively.

While the arrogant oravore captain was talking to the ancient captain, the rest of the Tumkar's mech troops were marching onto the densorin ship. When Captain Kal heard the transmission from Commander Nur that the whole crew had boarded the Z'Nal, he said to Tokmasg, "I would be happy to send you footage of our war and destruction at the hands of the Great Abominations, the reason that our species is extinct. Defence of the galaxy against the Great Abominations is our primary reason to exist."

Kal transferred the tapes the Tumkar had of the abomination invasion to both the densorin and oravore ships. They might have been currently warring enemies, but would need to be allies when the abominations arrived, as his own species had allied with their old enemy the thoi'han. When the transfer was done, Kal pulled the terminal out of the wall and walked it to the Z'Nal, not wanting oravore pirates to obtain it when they left. He was uncomfortable with the oravores having space flight, let alone the technology of his species.

At the same time, the Ostrex fired its main cannon at the Z'Nal, whose reinforced shields held. Before the Ostrex could fire another shot, the Z'Nal's fusion cannon struck the Ostrex's main cannon. The electromagnetic portion of the beam, moving at light speed, took down the barriers protecting the main cannon while the particle portion moving at 99.9% light speed struck the main cannon, putting a hole in its mount and causing the chamber to explode, disabling the main gun.

"Move in closer and use the secondary armament to target the densorin cruiser," Tokmasg ordered. "Get its engines first, I don't want it jumping to FTL, not with all that ancient alien ina-whatever tech it has on it."

As if knowing what Tokmasg was going to do, the Z'Nal fired its remaining weapons at the Ostrex's fighter bays and larger secondary armament. When out of ammunition, it hit FTL, not a split second too soon as the retaliatory fire from the Ostrex passed where the Z'Nal had been and hitting the asteroid. The Tumkar, unshielded, uncrewed and with most of its important tech removed, blew up in a spectacular fireball.

Captain Z'Kavnil Tokmasg and his crew pored over the asteroid and what remained of the Tumkar's wreckage for months. He was furious with the densorin for being able to heavily damage his dreadnought with a light cruiser, furious with the aliens, whatever they were, who had helped them, and furious with his own crew, whom he blamed for the loss of the valuable relic ship. The oravores who had been menacing the colony of J'Grul fell back, some joining the dreadnought's crew which had been depleted by casualties from the densorin armaments as well as the crew members whom Tokmasg had spaced for what he saw as their incompetence.

The Z'Nal returned to the homeworld of Krotar, a verdant and lush jungle world where most densorin cities were built alongside coastlines. There, Captain V'Kan hailed Naval Command, informing them of being attacked by an oravore dreadnought, stopping to explore what turned out to be an inusannon derelict, and the aid of the inusannon mech commander in their escape.

Admiral G'Nofa L'Kvar promptly ordered V'Kan and T'Cor to take the mech commanders to meet the Kritarchs. The Kritarchs were the rulers of Krotar, based in the capital city of Kronala, built on an equatorial island. The meeting was to take place in the Central Tower, a colossal edifice as tall as six dreadnoughts extending end to end, housing the entire united planetary government as well as the local governing authorities of the capital city. At the top of the tower, far above the island, the High Summit housed the Kritarchs' offices and they could see the entire island and coasts beyond from their vantage point, taller even than the tallest natural mountains of the planet. The only access was by a secured elevator several floors above ground level requiring an access code and a biometric identifier and surrounded by armoured police, so assassination attempts against the Kritarchs typically involved drone strikes or snipers positioned outside the entrances to the Central Tower waiting for their targets to leave the security of the building. Admiral L'Kvar met V'Kan and company as soon as the Z'Nal landed in Kronala and entered the Central Tower, where she escorted them to the elevator.

"It is only large enough to hold ten," said Admiral L'Kvar. "Most of your personnel will have to return to the Z'Nal, but the High Kritarch explicitly requested to speak with you, Captains T'Karus V'Kan and Nosik Kal, and your first officers, Commanders K'Valus T'Cor and Vekra Nur."

V'Kan nodded. "I would also like to bring Lieutenants V'Kana J'Kul and D'Nafra R'Tak, from technical and infantry respectively."

Captain Kal blinked his lights. "I feel that the input of security lieutenant Osik Tav, the first one awakened, may also be useful, as would that of our technical specialist, Yanta Zuk."

Admiral L'Kvar nodded. "You may bring your security officers, but no weapons are allowed in the High Summit where this elevator leads. You will need to check them in the locker." She unholstered her own sidearm and placed it into the locker by the elevator. The nine officers placed their sidearms, or in the cases of security officers R'Tak and Tav, a mass accelerator machine gun and a particle rifle, into the locker as well before following L'Kvar to meet the Kritarchs. The densorin captain and his officers had never even been to the Central Tower before, let alone the High Summit, and even Admiral L'Kvar had not been to see the Kritarchs since her promotion from Captain, which required meeting with the Kritarchs to be judged worthy. For their part, the inusannon brains in mechs had last seen densorin when they were still living in ponds surfacing to eat rotten fruit dropped by the plentiful trees near most bodies of fresh water on the planet. They hoped to learn just how far the species had climbed from its primitive history and if they had any chance at defending the galaxy from the threat that awaited organic civilisation.

The journey up the elevator tower was long and tedious. "I had forgotten how long the elevator takes to reach the High Summit," said the Admiral.

"Do you not frequently visit the Kritarchs, Admiral L'Kvar?" asked Captain Kal.

"No. I have only ascended once, decades ago upon my promotion to Admiral. I thought the elevator would be faster now. Only the senior most leaders with information threatening the survival of our civilisation regularly visit the Kritarchs."

Captain Kal pondered. His information would threaten densorin civilisation. This was why he was summoned to speak to the Kritarchs.

"What will they do with us?" he asked.

"They want to understand the information you have, verify the truth of your claims, and study your technology," said the Admiral.

"What will happen to us afterward?"

"You will be escorted back to the Z'Nal. Most likely, the Kritarchs will offer to help you find a world to settle."

"We do not require a world habitable by your standards, only resources and the systems to use them. Secrecy from agents of the Great Abominations is paramount, though alliances must be sought for the defence of all," replied Captain Kal.

The elevator finally arrived at the High Summit of the Central Tower where the High Kritarch and the other seventy Kritarchs awaited. A tall and very old densorin male approached the officers.

"I am K'Zaros V'Khau, High Kritarch of Krotar and its colonies," said the old, bronze-scaled male. "I am told you are inusannon. If that is true... tell us of your war with the thoi'han." The races of the era only knew of the war with the thoi'han because of the wrecks of their ships. The High Kritarch had never dealt with anyone claiming to be inusannon, but he had dealt with con artists, some of whom were actually covert operatives trying to trick the Kritarchs into taking monitoring devices past security, and needed to verify the information.

Kal's mechanical eyes lit. "The war with the thoi'han took place almost thirty thousand years before my time. I will explain what details have survived. In the year 4194 of our planet, we made contact with the United Federation of the Thoi'han. The thoi'han were not a single race, but they were composed of dozens of different species. They had numbers, but we had technology. Despite this, early intelligence efforts failed as our spies failed to pass us any information for decades. We learned that the thoi'han, literally, the worshippers of the thor'an, were controlled by spores from a sapient plant. The thor'an sought to enslave us as well."

"How did your war begin?" asked High Kritarch V'Khau.

"Many details were lost. Those who fought the thoi'han had been tens of thousands of years dead when I was born. When we colonised the planet In'gan, we noticed some of the colonists were behaving strangely. An infantry company sent down came under attack by the colonists, and soon after discovered a sapient plant whose spores were infecting the colonists. We burned the plant and built a farm over its remains, but a thoi'han ship came over months later and dropped thor'an spores on the planet. Years passed before a new thor'an grew and enslaved the colonists. We later learned that the thoi'han wanted to unite the galaxy under their banner against a greater threat, but knew not what it was and would not be their slaves if we did know. We fought the thor'an using the Wam-Shreerth, dropping its spores on thoi'han planets to destroy their colonies and uproot the thor'an."

"In'gan? Angana? Those sand worm things we've found on planets once populated by your people?"

Kal nodded, surprising the High Kritarch with his emulation of organic body language. "Our weapon in a long-ago war. The planet you call Angana, we called In'gan and it was the seat of many of our greatest battles with the thoi'han."

"The only known inusannon battleground to still exist today," said the High Kritarch. "It will still be recognisable in another fifty thousand years."

"Most likely," Kal agreed. "We would not be slaves, nor give more territory to the thor'an and its servants to help them enslave the galaxy. It stands as a testament of our desire to fight for our freedom and those of the enslaved."

"By the way," said the High Kritarch, "what year is it today, in your cycle's terms?"

"According to my internal chronometer, it is ninety-one thousand forty-eight. Our homeworld has a year of twenty-two point five five megaseconds." This made it roughly zero point six five five Prothean years, the standard even in many areas not part of the Empire for simplified trans-galactic communication of timekeeping, though many areas simply used larger prefixes (or suffixes or infixes depending on their languages) multiples of smaller time units to simplify time-related communications across planets with different year lengths, as had been common in the Inazar Stellar Confederation. "The Great Abominations appear approximately every one point five eight teraseconds, and there are approximately five hundred five point six gigaseconds before the next invasion."

"It is two thousand eight hundred fifty of the galactically accepted Prothean Imperial Calendar." The High Kritarch returned to the subject at hand. "How did your war end?"

"In 6990, after almost three thousand of our years fighting, our repeated use of the Wam-Shreerth rendered the thor'an nearly extinct... at the cost of making many of our own colony worlds very dangerous to inhabit. The turning point was when we accidentally dropped a bomb containing Wam-Shreerth spores on a primitive planet filled with oravore-like reptilian bipeds. Luckily, the hardy natives of that planet survived. They may still worship the Wam-Shreerth if they haven't raised a big enough hunting party to kill it by now. In desperation, thoi'han emissaries came to us seeking peace, offering to release its slaves if we would maintain their populations on the worlds we settled. We settled very distantly from their plant colonies to prevent enslavement and made a treaty with the thoi'han promising our aid if the threat for which they were preparing did come to pass, and they would not interfere with our space exploration."

"And then?" the High Kritarch pressed, still trying to believe that the krogan god Kalros might have been a misdirected inusannon weapon of mass destruction.

"We functioned as allies for the rest of the cycle, constructing a joint research station on the nexus. You call it the Imperial Citadel. The thoi'han were convinced there was something very dangerous aboard it and made repeated efforts during the war to destroy it, whether or not we had a research crew aboard. After the war we invited them to join our research crew and for thousands of years we were peaceful allies mutually focused on scientific inquiry... until the Great Abominations came."

This was what the High Kritarch was truly interested in, now that he fully believed that the four mechs the densorin officers had brought were inusannon soldiers. "Tell me about the Great Abominations."

"The thoi'han tried to warn us, and our response was to resist their rule by bombing their colony worlds and unleashing the Wam-Shreerth upon them. I will warn you, many in this cycle will make the same mistake," said Captain Nosik Kal. "They come periodically to destroy advanced civilisations. While their warships are vastly superior to anything we or our thoi'han allies had made, they are not invincible and can be destroyed with numerical superiority, however, their own numbers preclude the success of any war of attrition. Their more insidious weapon is radiation emitted by their technology that warps the mind and turns organics into willing servants of the abominations, some even freely walking into the 'harvesting' pods to have their bodies dissolved and their minds uploaded to the machine, others giving the location of their colonies to the abominations so the entire colony could be 'harvested.'

"So how can we prepare?" The High Kritarch seemed genuinely concerned. He would not live to see the abominations come, but his distant successor in about 18,500 PCE might, and would greatly appreciate if the past fifteen or sixteen thousand years had been spent preparing for them.

"Thor'an spores can provide some protection against the abominations' mind warping," said Kal. "They carry a risk of falling to control of the thor'an, but they were our allies at the time the abominations came and so many of us thought it was better to serve the thor'an than the abominations. It at least wasn't destroying our bodies to preserve us."

"You survived," said High Kritarch V'Khau. "Could the thor'an?"

"It is possible," replied Captain Kal. "Thor'an plants can live for up to a quarter of a million years. We believed their servants deluded when they spoke of abominations cyclically invading the galaxy, and implore your people not to make that mistake that led to our extinction." Kal gave the High Kritarch an inusannon galaxy map, and marked locations of battles throughout the inusannon-thoi'han war. "These planets where we fought the thoi'han are the best prospects for seeking out thor'an spores." He pointed to another planet. "Nazar, our homeworld. Your galaxy map calls it Nusan." He handed the High Kritarch a perfectly formed square slab of rock into which was carved a 256 by 256 grid containing all the glyphs of the constructed language used by the inusannon for communication across different parts of the planet prior to spaceflight and as a tool for introducing literacy to primitive societies. The leftmost column had numbers 0-255 in base sixteen glyphs, then the next column the 256 syllables used in the various languages of the planet, then the rest were mostly ideograms composed of syllabic glyphs.

"Our language is designed to be easily learned and taught to primitives. We believe in the right of all species to self determination, and eagerly provide them the means to record their own history, culture and science. Writing is the technology from which all other technologies spawn, and preserves ancient knowledge. The syllabic glyphs can be easily adapted to any language provided it has fewer than 256 syllables." Kal seemed to have an idea. He tapped a few keys on his holographic omni-tool generated terminal, generating the inusannon syllabic for the name of his homeworld.

"Nazar." He pushed a few more keys, causing the 'na' and 'zar' glyphs to fade as if worn by millenia of erosion, more closely resembling the 'nu' and 'san' glyphs.

The densorin High Kritarch's four eyes widened. "So your people called themselves inazar, those of Nazar, and then the Protheans misread inazar as inusan, and incorrectly added the -on plural from the inazar language..."

"And our people were called inusannon by this cycle," Kal replied casually. "The abomination made from our people calls itself Nazara, literally Greater Nazar, a title once borne by rulers claiming global imperium... sovereigns. You seem to have a talent for galactic languages, High Kritarch V'Khau."

"You are not the first to expose us to your glyphs," the High Kritarch replied. "We have been excavating your ruins for thousands of years." The High Kritarch actually read inusannon glyphs quite well. The true name of the species was not the mystery to him that it had been to the first archaeologist to uncover inusannon glyphs three thousand years earlier. The misreading had actually been discovered centuries before the High Kritarch met four soldiers of the extinct race, but the name inusannon had stuck as their language's name for the previous dominant species. The other Kritarchs did not know as much as he did, but most had backgrounds in galactic languages.

Commander Nur, Captain Kal's direct subordinate, handed the High Kritarch a data crystal. "This contains our knowledge of celestial mechanics. With more time to prepare for the abominations, it may prove useful," she said.

The High Kritarch smiled widely. "Captain Kal, do you possess the authority to form an alliance with the Densorin Kritarchy?"

Kal nodded. "In the absence of higher command authorities, I can ally our hive with the Kritarchy. This would not extend to other hives of our people. Have any others been discovered?"

"No," replied the High Kritarch. "You are our first contact with your kind. If we find other hives, we will inform you. But I must learn what happened at J'Grul. Captain V'Kan and his cruiser were forced to retreat to rescue you. As a test of our new alliance... would you join us in returning to J'Grul?"

"Our ship was destroyed," replied Kal. "Our troops are aboard the Z'Nal. We could construct another ship, but it would take us weeks that we do not have. We are not true mechs, our central processing units are actual brains wired into our systems and fed nutrient paste."

"We can modify one of our dreadnoughts for your needs," said the High Kritarch.

Kal indicated his agreement, and Admiral G'Nofa L'Kvar escorted the crew to the shipyard where the dreadnought M'Stek was docked. By the time they got there, the Tumkar's crew was already inspecting the vessel and overseeing the modifications. By the time they were done, the M'Stek was an order of magnitude more powerful, with almost impenetrable shields, a first-order cyberwarfare suite, and much more efficient engines. Within a day, the M'Stek, still commanded by a densorin admiral and bridge crew, returned to J'Grul, where the Z'Nal had faced the oravores.

The oravore dreadnought Ostrex was still conducting repairs to its main cannon. The fleet was surrounding it, holding orbit at J'Grul's largest moon F'Pren. Occasionally they would fire shots at the planet, aiming for food storages, or risk sending dropships to land troops on the planet to try to steal technology. The dreadnought and its fleet fled at the M'Stek's approach, but hundreds of thousands of oravore troops were still on J'Grul. The colony's defences were still active, firing mass accelerator cannons on oravore dropships which exploded in orbit, scattering troops to their deaths, but oravore troops were numerous and would overwhelm the colony within hours without aid... aid which was coming in the form of a dreadnought full of inusannon shock troops.

The M'Stek scanned the planet. Ten times as many oravores as densorin were on that rock, and they were destroying anything they could not load into a ship or secure with a survey team. They would take whatever inusannon technology they could, but destroy what they could not lest the densorin increase their technological advantage further. Densorin troops were focused on holding the colony's capital, S'Gahr, and surrounding farmland, but they were heavily outnumbered and the oravores burned everything in their paths, surrounding S'Gahr with scorched earth and heavy artillery.

With the colony nearby, firing the M'Stek's main armament on the oravore ground troops was a non-option that would destroy the densorin colony along with the oravores. Instead, Kal recommended the M'Stek fire on oravore dropships with its secondary weapons, reserving the main cannon for if the Ostrex returned, while he, fifty inusannon war-mechs, and two thousand more densorin marines landed in S'Gahr via landing pods, similar to escape pods but used for landing troops on a planet from a vessel that could not enter atmosphere. While densorin dreadnoughts could enter atmosphere, few other ships in the galaxy could with the possible exception of Prothean dreadnoughts.

Captain Kal took command of the densorin troops in S'Gahr. Under his leadership the densorin troops regrouped while inusannon mech snipers disrupted the oravores' command and control and coordinated machine gunners fired on leaderless units from opposite directions. When Kal exited the city limits to pursue the oravore commander, however, he was set upon by a dozen oravore troopers firing mass accelerator rifles. Kal's inusannon particle rifle melted through the armour of the troopers like a knife through cheese, but when it overheated and refused to fire any longer, he extended a blade from his arm. Ducking and weaving through the oravores, he thrust his blade through the weak points in their armour, killing or severely wounding most of his attackers. As he severed the neck of the squad leader, however, another oravore soldier opened up with a plasma shotgun from behind, dropping what remained of his shields and shredding his legs. The disabled mech called for help but was trapped in a stasis field by the shotgun trooper and loaded into the back of an oravore dropship to be taken for study.

"We will find out if you are really inusannon before long," said the pilot. "Then the densorin and the Protheans will finally pay for their crimes against the oravores."

On the ground, Commander Nur asked Admiral L'Kvar, who had accompanied them aboard the M'Stek, if she had seen Captain Kal. She had not, since he had led a densorin charge hours earlier to lure the oravores into an ambush by his snipers and rocket-launching mechs, who had since returned to base. Nur had received a distress signal from the captain, but her efforts to locate him were futile. Of the fifty mechs deployed, twenty-seven were still standing and twenty had been collected and piled behind densorin lines, being examined by engineers, technicians, or other mechs rather than medics or doctors, along with wounded densorin soldiers and scientists. Two were actively searching for Captain Kal, including working with densorin troops who could be pulled to search.

"Our fallen can be repaired easily as long as the organic brain survives," said Commander Nur. "We have already upgraded the medical bay aboard the M'Stek with one thousand twenty-four stasis pods to be used for our brains should they be required. If weapons, shields and armour are severely compromised, the VI automatically triggers the stasis mode if the stasis equipment is still functioning. If it fails, it is a medical emergency that requires the brain to be put into stasis while the mech is repaired."

"What did ancient inusannon do with their dead?" asked Admiral L'Kvar as aid personnel tended the fallen, now aware that their synthetic allies could still suffer medical emergencies in combat just like themselves.

"We buried them in fertile soil, returning body and soul to nature, and commemorated them with flat stone or non-ferrous metal grave markers that would not be damaged by beasts of burden or later harvesting machines, ensuring they lasted. Later, we spaced our astronauts in coffins made of modified escape pods where they were mummified by vacuum, typically carrying a record of our script like the one my captain gave to your High Kritarch. My six hundred and fifteenth direct matrilineal ancestor, Kala Nur, the first of our kind to travel to space, was the first to be so honoured. Her coffin may still float through the star cluster where we discovered our first mass relay, holding a copy of her script, like an interstellar version of the messages in bottles some of the more advanced pre-spaceflight societies we have observed have thrown into bodies of water to be read years or even centuries later, with her body given to science and able to give its discoverer important details of her species' biology... if the Great Abominations have any respect for graves. The continued existence of zeioph ruins with graves many times more ancient than us suggests they are not interested in the dead, and would care little for what a Prothean researcher could learn from examining ancient coffins... or maybe she has already been found."

"I could try to find out what other inusannon artifacts have been discovered," said the Admiral. "Maybe someone found a pod with a pilot in it somewhere. She wouldn't be on Angana, would she? We and most of the other civilisations out there found a few thousand there."

"No. Kala Nur lived when our space programme was in its infancy, our late second millennium. She's several thousand years older than anything on Angana. She would have been launched near the homeworld, probably near the relay. In a straight line, launched at about a thousandth of light speed, she's still within about forty parsecs of Nazar if she hasn't been found by a starship or pulled into a planet's gravity well or squashed by an asteroid. I realise we do not have the resources to search, but if we are ever in the system... I would like to know that her final mission was completed, that she delivered her pod and record and body to the furtherment of alien science."

"I've kept you waiting long enough. We need to find Captain Kal before the oravores do. They won't know how to treat him even if they do care about keeping him alive for study, and that's if they even know he has anything organic in him at all."

Nur seemed nonchalant. "Search parties are already deployed. When our damaged mechs are repaired or replaced, they too will join the search. Have any oravore dropships left the planet?"

"M'Stek reports seeing two heading straight for the Ostrex, heavily shielded and with its main cannon repaired. We'll have to get onto the Ostrex before it jumps to FTL," said Admiral L'Kvar. She activated her comm to the M'Stek. "Do not let those dropships onto the Ostrex! We have reason to think that Captain Kal has been captured and is being taken to the dreadnought."

The M'Stek turned its main cannon onto the Ostrex. Unlike the Z'Nal, the M'Stek could withstand a few shots from the Ostrex's main cannon, and fired on the engines, focusing the fusion cannon on the part of the dreadnought where he thought the FTL engine was. Unfortunately for the densorin gunner, the FTL engine in an oravore dreadnought was not located in the place that corresponded to where the FTL engine was in a densorin dreadnought, and he put a hole right through the Ostrex's slave quarters, venting most of the sapient cargo into space where the horrified crew saw them hitting their own dreadnought. The dropships hurried onto the Ostrex, it being the safest place for them despite being under fire from an upgraded densorin dreadnought, and it jumped to FTL with Captain Kal aboard.

Ensign V'Terek K'Nal, the gunner who perforated the oravore dreadnought, would be cited for valour and promoted to Lieutenant, but his feelings of guilt for not only failing to save Captain Kal but killing tens of thousands of innocent slaves overwhelmed him and Admiral L'Kvar referred him to a military psychiatrist who diagnosed PTSD. A week after the battle, he vented himself out of an airlock, leaving a note saying that while he was hailed as a hero he felt like a traitor and would die in the way he felt a traitor deserved.

Z'Kavnil Tokmasg, the oravore dreadnought captain, was irritated initially by the loss of most of his slaves but considered it far worth the prize he had obtained. He immediately wired the mech to the Ostrex's main computer processing unit by the wire leading to what he thought was the mech's computer processing unit, intending to upgrade his vessel similarly to how he believed the densorin had upgraded theirs and become an invincible juggernaut capable of destroying the colony and stealing all its scientific research.

It did not work the way the slaver pirate planned.

Kal awoke and his VI informed him that he was now a prisoner of war aboard the Ostrex, so with its aid he infiltrated the systems of the dreadnought, first sending a signal to the densorin admiralty that he was captive aboard the Ostrex, then hijacking propulsion while the ship was still headed away at FTL, and heading back to densorin space, intending for Tokmasg to face justice for his crimes against the densorin. When the oravores tried to retake control of the ship, Kal moved his control to shields, draining their power and leaving them helpless against densorin marines when the fleet found the Ostrex. He intentionally left life support and communications open, listening to the oravores' distress calls regarding a cancerous intelligence spreading throughout their ship and patching them through to the densorin admiralty.

When a furious Tokmasg demanded to know what was happening to the ship, Kal tricked him into hauling the ship's element zero stores to the CPU, claiming his technology required it. In fact, it was his biotics that required it, and when his brain was connected to enough element zero he could construct a colossal barrier. This had the risk of damaging his brain, but the oravores didn't know there was a brain at all and that Kal was not purely synthetic and as such were not connecting him to his feeding system, so he felt he was doomed anyway despite knowing the densorin marines and fellow war mechs were coming. More importantly, it also locked the oravores out of their own CPU, allowing Kal to shut down weapons, shields and propulsion and leave the vessel vulnerable except for the oravore troops on board, many of whom were cowardly mercenaries who fled the densorin marines, but most of those brave enough to fight died. Thousands were captured by densorin forces and tried for slave trafficking, and typically imprisoned on prison moons regularly supplied but poorly patrolled, reliant on harsh conditions and lack of resources to prevent escapes.

Tokmasg retreated to his bridge, where he made a final distress call regarding a metastatic consciousness taking over his ship. As Commander Nur located Kal, who shut down the barrier only to die in her arms, his brain fried by the ordeal, and densorin marines used plasma cutters to open the door to the bridge, a gunshot sounded, ending the transmission. Lieutenant D'Nafra R'Tak pushed open the door leading a platoon of marines, who saw Tokmasg dead on the floor of his bridge, his face blown open by the huge plasma pistol he carried, cauterising so there was no blood, just charred flesh. After the cowardly slaver's death, his last panicked words gave his synthetic enemies the name by which the galaxy would call them for millennia.

Metacon.


	3. Chapter 2: Oravore Odium

The mood on the oravore homeworld of Nugala was tense. The pirate Z'Kavnil Tokmasg, a hero to the Oravore Union, who for over two hundred years had plagued densorin and remote Prothean colonies, was dead at the hands of the Metacon, as they had come to call the synthetic warriors they had discovered in densorin space. While they were aware of the synthetics' claim to be inusannon soldiers preserved to defend the galaxy, most doubted it, with most of the oravore leadership believing them to be a densorin weapon, citing as evidence the fact that when Tokmasg wired the synthetic to the CPU core of his dreadnought, recklessly enabling it to seize control of the vessel, it went to densorin space where the dreadnought was captured by densorin forces, Tokmasg had apparently been killed by the mechs. His suicide had not become known, as his surviving crew was in a densorin penal colony for slave trafficking, murder, and torture, and would likely be there until nearly 3000 PCE. Penalties for slave trafficking were severe in densorin space, as they were in most of the civilised galaxy.

In 2855 PCE, when oravore scavengers managed to loot what pieces of the Tumkar's wreckage had not been collected by Tokmasg's crew, and one among them with scientific knowledge dated the debris to between 27,500 and 27,000 BPC, the vessel and its mechs were confirmed to be far too old to be anything densorin. While it was not proof that they were inusannon, the vessel dated to near the disappearance of the inusannon, whose extinction was the source of numerous theories of what had happened to them. Some said they warred with the thoi'han until their mutual extinction. Others said they had uploaded their minds to artificial intelligence platforms by means similar to the Protheans' for constructing virtual intelligences with personality imprints but much more advanced and capable of holding whole minds, ascending via technology to another plane of existence. Some said the aquatic species' reproductive rate outpaced its ability to locate new garden worlds and its population simply crashed as depleted water supplies were unable to sustain such high population levels, leading to the loss of most of the young and the inability to sustain the species. Some said they migrated to the Great Spiral Galaxy or to one of the nearby dwarf galaxies near their own, a theory the densorin had been known to research with superluminal scanners and even AI-controlled deep space probes. A handful, widely dismissed as lunatics or paranoid conspiracy theorists at best or machine cultists if not outright Metacon sympathisers at worst outside of densorin space, believed that the inusannon were wiped out by great abominations that periodically came from the Imperial Citadel.

The realisation of the oravores that the Metacon were not a densorin weapon encouraged aggressive exploration efforts by the oravores to find Metacon units of their own to help them gain an edge over the Prothean Empire, a multi-species political union feverishly expanding its territory at the expense of its neighbours and technologically superior to most other powers in the galaxy. While not quite as technologically advanced as the densorin, owing to their bias against synthetic life which the densorin did not suffer from, the Prothean Empire had the strength of numbers to threaten any other galactic power, including the oravores.

In 2890 PCE, an oravore mining operation on the moon of a gas giant less than a tenth of a light-gigasecond from the edge of claimed Prothean space, more than seventy light-gigaseconds from where the Tumkar had been spotted in 2850 PCE, discovered someone else mining the moon's element zero and other resources used for ship construction. There were numerous hulks of what appeared to be partially constructed vessels. At first suspecting the intruders were Prothean, the mining overseer contacted the Oravore Union Navy, which dispatched a fleet consisting of four dreadnoughts (standard oravore procedure when engaging a Prothean fleet), sixteen cruisers and over fifty frigates.

"To the nearest oravore military installation, this is Overseer K'Talzon Zantasg. Somebody's digging in the Koltaris sector gas giant's moon system. Multiple vessels of unknown configuration and armament at various stages of construction on the moon's surface. They don't look like standard Prothean Imperial Navy or any other force we've encountered. May be pirates." Despite the piratical activities of many oravores contributing to their species' bellicose reputation, not all pirates in this sector were oravores. There were tulamorian terrorists and vanksher vigilantes who fought Prothean imperial rule, and many had become pirates when their worlds fell, joined by fugitives from Imperial law and defeated resistance movements from various conflict zones looking for a way to continue fighting their enemies.

"Admiral Z'Paktos Novlasg, Third Fleet. I'll come over and check it out."

Within three hours Novlasg's fleet had arrived. A closer scan from his command dreadnought Udolix determined that whoever was mining the moon was not Prothean, or any other organic for that matter.

"Some of those vessels on the surface look like the derelict cruiser we found in densorin space in 2850 PCE," said the oravore admiral. Given what had been found in the ancient vessel, this indicated the presence of the Metacon.

Whoever was mining element zero from the oravores' territory seemed to react to the Udolix's scan. The dreadnought received a hail.

"I am Admiral Z'Paktos Novlasg, commander of the Third Fleet of the Oravore Union Navy. Who is mining element zero from OUR territory?" the admiral demanded.

A mechanical voice came over the comms and a hologram of a three-lighted mech appeared, looking much like the command and control mech which had jacked the Ostrex forty years earlier. "I am Admiral Vanik Tau, commander of the First Fleet of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy."

Novlasg frowned. This confirmed his suspicion of Metacon. He was not about to share the Union's limited element zero stores with anyone, especially a race with which his race's first contact had led to their alliance with the enemy. Yet, if he could get the synthetic to side with him, he would have no need of the element zero stores in his own space as he would have plenty of conquered Prothean and densorin worlds to strip bare. The Admiral decided on diplomacy. With a sadistic, psychopathic brute like Z'Kavnil Tokmasg as their oravore first contact, the Metacon could be excused for thinking that the oravores lacked any concept of diplomatic negotiation.

"Admiral Tau, the Oravore Union zealously guards its territory against Prothean incursions. Our fleet responded to suspicion of Prothean mining in our territory. State your purpose here."

This was only part of the truth. The Oravore Union and the Prothean Empire were both aggressive, expansionistic forces seeking ever-increasing amounts of territory and resources. The Prothean Empire was the much larger of the two powers, and more technologically advanced, but the oravores had a much higher birth rate and oravore territory was extremely defensible, with plenty of nebulae and gas giants that affected sensors and asteroids that could be used either as places for warships to hide behind and shoot from or mounted with weapons to turn them into unkillable dreadnoughts or even fitted with rocket boosters to throw at planets, either Prothean or densorin worlds or even oravore planets with Prothean troops on them who could not be dislodged by oravore armies or orbital strikes. The sheer ruthlessness of the oravores made any Prothean conquest economically inefficient and impractical. The threat of the Prothean Empire was exploited by the bellicose generals of the Union to maintain the loyalty of the population and justify the piracy and slave trafficking practiced in their outer systems. Propaganda against the Densorin Kritarchy, portraying them as indolent and uninterested in expansion, was used to justify enslaving them, but was not as widely believed as that depicting the Prothean Empire as the true threat.

"We are currently mining resources for our fleet, which your scanners undoubtedly detected on this moon near our mining operation," replied Admiral Tau. "We believed this territory to still be unclaimed as it was when we arrived."

A slower, more detailed scan from the Udolix counted forty unarmed bulk freighters, six cruisers, and twenty-four frigates. They appeared smaller than the oravore ships and both fleets had nearly the same number of ships. The oravores had larger ships and theirs were all armed, but previous experience with the densorin made Novlasg cautious of underestimating the apparently outnumbered Metacon. Furthermore, a massive communication structure became apparent on the moon, overlooking the docked Metacon fleet and its mining operation. This appeared to be fully operational, seeking and responding to signals from other hives.

Novlasg had an idea. "Admiral Tau, with your forces we could completely destroy the Prothean Empire. Join us, and we will allow you the continued use of our territory for mining and expanding your forces. Think of it as a rent payment for mining Union territory."

Admiral Tau considered the idea. The destruction of the relay nexus, known to its current occupiers as the Prothean Imperial Citadel despite said occupiers' own belief that the structure was built by those they called inusannon, was a primary security interest of the Metacon, but the extermination of the various species comprising the Prothean Empire certainly was not. Contrary to myths that would spread during war millennia later, the Metacon had no desire to start a war with the Prothean Empire that could at this point see them wiped out, though Imperial aggression was seen as something that needed to be curtailed lest it destabilise the galaxy. The Great Abominations were not due to return for another fifteen or so millennia, and there was plenty of time to persuade the residents to destroy their enemies' route into the galaxy after proper diplomatic relations were established with the current galactic powers. The Metacon were patient, and had no desire to war with the galaxy they sought to unite against the true enemy of the galaxy.

"To aid you in your campaign of aggression against the..." Admiral Tau began before the bellicose oravore admiral cut him off.

"The Prothean Empire is an aggressive power that has already forcibly assimilated the tulamorians and vanksher, is currently encroaching on enduromi territory and researching primitive species as far from the Imperial Citadel as ten light years from the densorin homeworld, and given the prevalent views among the Imperial population toward synthetics, you should concern yourself with the possibility that they will destroy any of your other hives that they may discover," Admiral Novlasg replied tersely. "The threat must be obliterated now." At these words, the Udolix's communications officer feverishly scanned her terminal. The presence of a large oravore fleet this close to the Prothean Imperial border was enough provocation. To be seen communicating with Metacon, especially their commanders, would be enough to potentially spark a war with the Empire that the Union was ill equipped to defend.

"Admiral Novlasg, my body may be synthetic, but my brain is still fully organic, and I was speaking of the densorin."

"The densorin are harvesting countless resources toward their technology, which they use largely to benefit science for its own sake, not for anything productive, and billions of sapients starve who could be fed with those resources. By enslaving them, we preserve both their and our own capacities for expansion as we raise more of them in our ways," Novlasg responded.

Tau's lights glowed intensely. "The Inazar Stellar Confederation has long opposed slavery in any form and warred with the thoi'han to liberate them, including those of our own kind who had been enslaved, from the control of the thor'an, the Old Growth. When peace was made, volunteers would infect themselves with thor'an spores to tend to the needs of the being that had once enslaved many, and later they were compensated by the government of the Stellar Confederation for their service. This arrangement persisted for hundreds of gigaseconds before the Great Abominations came."

Admiral Novlasg was impressed with the capacity of a species to make peace with such a hated enemy. He would have never trusted a defeated foe who had enslaved his kind not to attempt the same again the second his dreadnought's main cannon no longer threatened their world with annihilation.

"Thousands of years before our war with the thoi'han, our species' advances in biology and genetic engineering enabled us to become biologically immortal, although we could still die of unnatural causes. I am one of very few from the time of this invention to still be alive, and am more than two teraseconds old now. Most of us opted to end our own lives after a few tens of gigaseconds. Owing to our immortality, most of us only had one or two children, typically at well beyond what had been our original average lifespan of four point three gigaseconds, opting to live long enough to see them grow and enjoy long lives of their own. But I could never have them, as I was among the discoverers of the mass relays. You see, we did not know what they were, we called them unknown artifacts, their power source Alien Substance One, and the material of their hulls Alien Substance Two, from which we make the casings of our brains, but Alien Substance One, or element zero as you call it, is a toxic carcinogen and teratogen to my species. My commanding officer died of cancer, which was easily curable then but he was elderly and near the end of his natural life, and my three children were stillborn with horrific blue lesions all over their bodies. This happened to the rest of my crew, too. The only good thing to come out of it was that the one surviving child born to an affected member of my crew, out of one hundred and six dead children, Vesin Kar, was the first biotic of our species, and struggled with insanity and deformity all her life, and our science was eventually able to replicate the results with less damage."

"If this thing about immortality is true, Admiral Tau, why did you put your brain into that mech?"

"The Great Abominations that came to this galaxy more than a terasecond ago and drove my species to extinction took billions of my people, melted their bodies and uploaded their minds into the body of a new abomination calling itself Nazara, who yet hides in the galactic core, periodically emerging to examine the state of the galaxy until the next extinction appear roughly every one point five eight teraseconds. I put my brain into this mechanical body to retain my freedom from the abominations, that I may prepare the galaxy to defend itself with our technology," replied Admiral Tau.

"So you became a synthetic to protect yourself from synthetics," said Novlasg skeptically. "Does preparing the galaxy to defend itself include taking control of our vessels and handing them over to the densorin?"

The three blue lights on Admiral Tau's head lit. "It does not," he replied. "Captain Nosik Kal was captured and taken to the oravore dreadnought designated Ostrex, where he was forcibly connected to the central processing core by Z'Kavnil Tokmasg, who apparently believed Kal to be a mere command and control unit and not aware of his organic brain inside. There, he disabled his captor's vessel and redirected it to densorin space with the intention of effecting his rescue. Available data indicates that to that end, he deceived Captain Tokmasg into providing him with lethal quantities of Alien Substance One, ostensibly to enable him to re-power and upgrade weapons and shields, but in fact he absorbed the substance to raise an extremely powerful biotic barrier around the central processing core to prevent his forcible disconnection and the ship's restoration of power while he entered friendly territory. His subordinate officer Vekra Nur, who had taken command after his capture, located him with the aid of densorin marines, but he had already suffered fatal Alien Substance One poisoning and died within seconds after dropping his barrier to allow Commander Nur and her allies to free him. However, he had effected the death of Tokmasg, the capture of seven thousand five hundred ninety-three slave traffickers, and the freedom of the one hundred ninety-seven surviving slaves."

Novlasg frowned. It seemed the Metacon, or whatever they called themselves, did not approve of slavery any more than most of the contemporary spacefaring civilisations did. "Did you ally with the densorin because of a shared opposition to slavery?"

Tau contemplated. "That was Captain Kal's decision. He was out of contact with other hives. Available data indicates a mutual antipathy toward slavery, though the primary reason for the alliance was to share technology and provide the technological advancements necessary to defeat the Great Abominations. How can the Densorin Kritarchy be expected to fight the abominations if they cannot even defend adequately against slavers and pirates?"

"You make a compelling point, Admiral Tau," said Novlasg. "Would the Metacon be willing to provide the Oravore Union similar aid against the Prothean Empire?"

Tau's lights darkened. "Metacon," he repeated. "A disparaging term for synthetic intelligence of unknown and presumably ancient origin, from a Prothean translation from the language of the northern continent of Nugala of a portmanteau of the words for metastatic consciousness, describing an intelligence that spreads like a cancer."

Novlasg's blood ran cold. He had just gravely insulted an enemy commander, or worse, a potentially allied one, at first contact. But what he heard next reassured him.

"We have no objection to aiding the defence of the Oravore Union. However, as an ally of the Densorin Kritarchy, we must ensure the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Union and Kritarchy to ensure that our allies do not fight one another," Admiral Tau replied. "We must, after all, ensure all spacefaring civilisations possess the ability to defend themselves against the Great Abominations. If you desire densorin technology, I would propose negotiating for it in exchange for peace and suppression of pirate and slaver activity in their territory. If you desire resources, there are plentiful resources in unexplored regions of space. As a token of goodwill, we can send a shuttle to your dreadnought with a representative of the Stellar Confederation carrying a database of our species' trade language and our galactic maps, as we did when Captain Nosik Kal and his crew did when they met with the High Kritarch in their homeworld's centre of government."

The oravore admiral smiled. "I have no objection to receiving your ambassador, but I would have to forward your policy proposal to the Union of Governors." The Union of Governors was the assembly of all governors of planets in the Oravore Union. Each governor had a vote in union policy, but the governors themselves were chosen according to their own planet's rules. Some were meritocratic, some totalitarian, a few even democratic, but union policy only covered collective defence and foreign policy, not internal governance which was left to individual governors.

"I will prepare it immediately," replied Admiral Vanik Tau. "However, as a security precaution after the last time one of my officers boarded an oravore dreadnought, I will dispatch a security detail to protect her."

Admiral Z'Paktos Novlasg nodded in understanding, though surprised less that the Metacon would send a female ambassador than that they still retained a concept of gender when their bodies no longer had disparate organs.

"Very well, Admiral Tau. As a security precaution after the last time an oravore dreadnought allowed on board... the M-word is bad, right? What is it you called yourself again? We will set up heavy automated turrets around our central processing core and disable all functions other than basic life support."

"We are inazar. We also accept the designation of inusannon that the species of this cycle call us." Tau then turned to his second in command, Vice Admiral Sikan Kar, and gave her instructions for meeting the oravore admiral.

"Comply with their instructions when it will not endanger you, and do not attempt to tamper or interface with any systems on their vessel. This is a diplomatic overture, and not an intelligence-gathering operation. Their security posture is understandable, given that a captive was able to take over a ship. Our security will protect you, but do not give their forces reason to take hostile action that will endanger further diplomatic overtures."

Vice Admiral Kar and security head Commander Tirun Nal stepped off the moon's surface onto their shuttle, joined by five other security mechs carrying particle rifles, as was Commander Nal. Vice Admiral Kar was unarmed, but alone of the seven possessed the triangular blue optical lights of a command and control officer, with the others having two optical lights where their bodies would have had eyes. All of them wore heavy armour over their mechanical bodies, which resembled the shapes of inusannon remains found in strata at various archaeological sites in the galaxy.

The Oravore Union Navy Third Fleet's flagship Udolix lowered its shields and opened a cargo bay to allow the shuttle to enter, where it was promptly surrounded by heavily armoured biotic oravore shock troops, twenty-four in all, carrying mass accelerator machine guns that would be too heavy for a densorin marine to carry. Admiral Novlasg arrived just as Commander Nal and her squad surrounded Vice Admiral Kar, who immediately stepped out of the circle and handed a cubical data crystal to Admiral Novlasg, who gave it to a security officer.

"It is our galactic map and linguistic database," said Kar.

Novlasg was loath to take the word of the Metacon, having a good idea of what they could do to his vessel if they wanted. "Find out what is on that cube." He was wary of running Metacon code on his ship, unsure if it would try to take over the ship. To that end the Admiral had disabled weapons, shields, sensors, and propulsion as a show of good faith to the Metacon, as he was still used to calling them. The security officer would probably lack the technical skills, but would be able to get it to Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander P'Natkus Viprasg. He would be able to figure out what was on the cube and if it posed a threat to his ship, but the threat was not from the Metacon, whose ambassador suddenly threw a large biotic barrier which was joined by the biotics of the oravore security and the Admiral himself...

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Prothean stealth cruiser IPV Voidseer

The listening post at the edge of Prothean Imperial space detected the massing of an oravore fleet not far from their position. A fleet that size, if it made it into Imperial space and accessed a primary relay, could strike any of six different major Imperial colony worlds and cause tens of billions of civilian casualties and quadrillions of credits' worth of damage.

At four thousand times the speed of light, the Voidseer moved under stealth to the oravore fleet. It could travel three times this speed, but only at the cost of compromising its stealth and giving away its presence, which would lead to its immediate destruction by the oravore fleet. The cruiser was not expected to engage the entire fleet, or even be noticed by them, but to observe and attempt to determine the intentions of the oravores in massing so close to Imperial space. The oravores were known to mine near or even across the Imperial border, but fleet movements typically indicated a response to someone else mining in space they claimed. Imperial High Command was concerned about who. While the Metacon were not on their list of suspects (little of the densorin discoveries made it to Prothean space, and what did was often disbelieved when passed to those who did not have the densorin's level of scientific knowledge, which already outstripped Prothean science at this stage) the Empire feared that pirates might provoke war with the oravores, or worse, those who broke away from the Empire and were forced in their defeat to become fugitives from the Ministry of Imperial Security might ally with the oravores against the Empire.

They most certainly did not consider the possibility that even the oravores, so arrogant and reckless as to deliberately connect a Metacon command and control unit to the central processing core of an expensive and large-crewed dreadnought with predictably catastrophic results, would be so cataclysmically foolish as to attempt to ally with the Metacon.

For hours the Voidseer observed the Udolix exchange communications signals with what appeared to be a mining operation, until the unknown design of shuttle took off from the moon's surface. Taking advantage of the flagship's sensors going offline, the Voidseer approached to within two kilometres of the dreadnought, which opened its cargo doors and received the shuttle. A close scan, undetected by the crew of the Udolix, revealed several synthetics with black bipedal bodies vaguely resembling the inusannon exiting the shuttle and one of them giving an object to the oravore admiral.

Dumbfounded that the oravore admiral actually seemed to trust the Metacon enough not to space them out an airlock, Commander Reshor Kpan of the Voidseer dropped cloak for a millisecond, just long enough to fire a torpedo into the opened cargo bay of the Udolix. What resembled a biotic barrier or possibly an internal shield generator held back the torpedo for a half a second before being overwhelmed and all in the cargo bay were incinerated. The idiocy of one admiral could not be allowed to give the entire Oravore Union, even if it was an enemy of the Empire, over to the control of the Metacon.

The Voidseer re-cloaked and jumped to FTL, not bothering to observe the effect on the rest of the Udolix. The blown cargo bay led to a major hull breach, the Admiral and Metacon delegation were incinerated, and panic among the oravores reigned not only aboard the flagship but among the rest of the fleet, which was not receiving orders from its Admiral. The Udolix's captain, T'Paknus Zarnosg, ordered damage control crews to patch the hull breach and immediately re-enable the ship's systems and summoned the crew to general quarters. He brusquely ordered communications officer Lieutenant Commander K'Tagva Supresg to open a channel to Admiral Vanik Tau and demand an explanation for why his cargo bay was just blown up with the Admiral in it.

"Captain T'Paknus Zarnosg of the Udolix. Admiral Tau, what justification have you for this attack on our vessel?"

Admiral Vanik Tau seemed panicked, and Zarnosg reminded himself that while the Metacon commander looked like a droid, inside was still an organic brain that felt the same emotions as any other organic. "The Stellar Confederation is not responsible for the attack. Data transferred to our command base in the final second of the lives of Vice Admiral Kar, her delegation, and their oravore counterparts indicate that all biotics in the cargo bay erected a barrier under Vice Admiral Kar's leadership that was overwhelmed by a torpedo fired by a cloaked vessel remaining visible only a millisecond, long enough to fire the missile and turn around before re-engaging the cloak and going to FTL. The missile destroyed the cargo bay but was stopped from penetrating further into the vessel."

"So the M... the inusannon ambassador gave her life to protect us?" asked Zarnosg.

"Yes. Without the barriers, the missile would have penetrated into the central processing core, shields and other systems would have been permanently disabled, and life support compromised."

"Who would have sought to disrupt our diplomatic meeting?" the Captain asked.

"Your Admiral mentioned a cultural bias against synthetics common in the Prothean Empire, and they possess stealth technology capable of conducting the attack," replied Admiral Tau.

Captain Zarnosg now suspected the Prothean Empire. It made sense that they would not want to see the Metacon form alliances with organics, as this could threaten the growth of Imperial rule. While the Empire was not known to attack diplomatic gatherings in the past, diplomatic gatherings of its enemies in the past had been organics, not synthetics that could threaten the existence of the Empire. Diplomacy might be sacred, but deceptive machines were not tolerated by the Empire even if they did claim to be emissaries.

Admiral Tau also mistrusted the Empire. Fearful they would return to wipe out his hive, Tau ordered his fleet to board whatever ships were able to travel in space and flee to another part of interstellar space before the Protheans came in force, leaving the moon they had been mining to the oravores, who also studied the Metacon communication device left on the moon. The Third Fleet remained in place guarding the device and mining operation while the Udolix returned to Nugala for repairs.

While the Prothean Empire never directly accused the Oravore Union of harbouring Metacon, the Oravore Union was unwilling to condemn the Imperial attack on a diplomatic conference for fear of admitting to the Empire that they actually were engaging in diplomacy with the Metacon. Captain Zarnosg forwarded what data Admiral Novlasg collected that survived the explosion to the Union of Governors, who voted to make peace with the Densorin Kritarchy. This reduced the Union's need for a force equaliser and they ceased seeking out Metacon hives, but did not destroy the ones they found like more technophobic regimes did. The Union, however, had merely traded one small and technologically advanced enemy for one much larger but only somewhat less advanced. Cold war between the Empire and the Union would be the rule of the day for the next ten thousand Imperial years.


	4. Chapter 3: Zha Zugzwang

The zha homeworld, Khaanra, had once been a verdant paradise like Krotar or Nazar. Its population of indigenous sapients, the zha, were diverse species of intelligent avians with four eyes, three at one hundred twenty degree angles from one another and the fourth on top of the head to spot larger predators above, prehensile claws, with which as primitives they not only hunted their prey but built homes inside trees, rocks, underground, and many other places depending on which region of the planet they were in, from jungles, grasslands, coastal areas, marshes, or the cold deserts of the planet's polar regions, and made and used tools to facilitate their daily lives. The primitive zha sustained a population crash in 10,000 BPC, when centuries of unsustainable growth caused by the invention of the fence over nine thousand years earlier enabled the avian bipeds to trap ground-bound animals within an area, feeding increasingly large numbers of young who repeated the cycle, led to the extinction of the large bipeds, quadrupeds and octopeds that had sustained their population.

The zha did not become extinct at this point, but they would have followed the animals they had hunted had they been unable to adapt. Millennia as hunters had taught them that plants often grew from the dung of the animals they had hunted, as such dung contained the seeds of the fruits and nuts their prey ate. The zha began to eat the seeds and fruits that still grew and deposited their droppings in fields where they wanted to collect fruit later, leading to their invention of farming by 9500 BPC. While this did not avert a catastrophic decrease in their population during the years it took to adapt and later native historians estimated that upwards of ninety-five percent of the population starved to death, the zha were able to survive as dung farmers, and with food at a premium, their evolution selected for fewer offspring per egg clutch. This led to a more sustainable population, but the zha relentlessly advanced their technology, aided in part by their discovery of writing in 8300 BPC by unearthing an artifact containing an organised grid of mysterious ancient glyphs, which were subsequently used by the zha to write in their own languages, and they even adopted the hexadecimal numerical system of the ancients for their own development of their then infant study of mathematics, radically accelerating their scientific advancement.

By 7500 BPC, the zha had moved from predators to dung farmers to industrial societies in the space of two thousand Prothean imperial years, having invented a practical combustion engine using dried plant matter unsuitable for compost mixed with alcohol as the fuel, used to replace the ancient, slave-drawn mechanical plows and giant scythes with self-propelled plows and scythes capable of harvesting more efficiently. This began a trend toward fewer farmers feeding larger numbers, the abolition of slavery in 7200 BPC, and the development of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind powered batteries that powered different machines. With the development in 6000 BPC of advanced engineering techniques that enabled the zha to build huge farming towers, with hundreds of floors each with hundreds of thousands of square metres of crops growing, there was easily enough food to feed every zha on the planet down to the poorest with a diverse and nutritious diet.

However, the immense technological advancements of the ancient zha could not save them from the consequences of water depletion. The lush rain forests and wooded regions died from drought as water courses were redirected to farming towers and large cities, and desertification began to take root in many coastal areas when the adjoining inland regions became barren, leading to noticeable declines in plant life by 5000 BPC. By 3000 BPC, most of Khaanra outside of a few hundred large cities of tens or hundreds of millions each was arid wasteland, and the zha faced another massive population crash made much worse by the high child mortality caused by malnutrition in areas where the farming towers were no longer able to grow due to disruptions in water supplies caused by weather or complications with the local infrastructure meaning that the next generation was likely to be sharply reduced. At this time, the zha first seriously began to consider the idea of developing space travel and communications technology to survey their and nearby star systems for habitable worlds. Time was critical, as there was no way to know how severe the impending population crash would get before demographics would stabilise again, or to what extent knowledge of technology would survive it, and many feared a dark age or even their extinction.

Their fears proved well founded. In 2600 BPC, the population of Khaanra declined to less than 600 million zha, down from its zenith of 24 billion in 3000 BPC. The few major cities that still had functioning farming towers found themselves besieged by throngs of refugees from cities that had become ghost towns with the depletion of their water supplies. In addition to many dying of thirst, many also died in numerous wars over resources, and few had children as they were focused on survival. In desperation, the leaders of the world sent a message into space.

"We are the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha. Our homeworld is undergoing a period of climate change that we fear may lead to the extinction of our species. Please render whatever assistance of which you are capable to preserve us."

The message contained an image of Khaanra as it appeared from space, and a hologram of the planet's star system and local group, to facilitate locating the planet should an alien actually discover the message. If one did, the people sending the message never knew. Some space expeditions did set out for other planets or moons that might be colonised, further depleting the planet's rapidly declining resources. The inexorable population decline continued until 2000 BPC, when the population of Khaanra, now a mere ten million, was confined to one settlement, on the now desert planet's north pole, the only place on the planet where anything could still be grown. To cope with the temperatures, much of the population now lived in underground tunnel networks shielded from their planet's intense heat. Very deep excavation had also become necessary in order to find any water supply that might alleviate the constant shoestring resources of the handful of survivors. Energy was no problem, solar panels covered much of the planet, becoming more extensive as desertification increased, used for desalinating ocean and other saline water sources. Food was the prime limiting factor; with insufficient water the farming towers no longer grew crops. Machines prowled the planet digging in areas zha surveyors believed water supplies were located, seeking out and transporting the vital fluid to Shaktal, the last remaining settlement on Khaanra, to drive back the natives' thirst and sustain the planet's last functioning farming tower. A secondary concern was locating supplies of petroleum for the machines' maintenance and any other biomass that could be used for either nutrients for the farming tower or conversion to petroleum via technology designed to vastly accelerate the natural process to the point that fossil fuels were a renewable resource in their civilisation.

Shaktal survived for thousands of years in this state, with the population fluctuating between two and three million inhabitants until 3250 PCE, when a strange machine descended from the sky and landed on the outskirts of the settlement. By then, a single active north polar settlement was all that indicated life on the planet and only a handful of derelict satellites and the wreckage of the first spaceflight attempt in 2975 BPC, with the mummified and partially burned corpses of the crew still aboard as a grim deterrent to future space endeavours, indicated that life had once been spacefaring.

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Frigate Latrek

In 3250 PCE, almost six thousand Imperial years from the sending of the message from the zha homeworld in 2600 BPC, it was received by a Metacon ship escorting a convoy of metals harvested from a local moon to the uninhabited toxic rogue planet upon which Admiral Vanik Tau had taken up residence with what of his hive, the First Fleet, had been able to escape before Prothean forces engaged the oravores in 2890 PCE, killing an oravore admiral and a Metacon diplomatic officer as well as dozens of security crew. The Latrek was a Metacon frigate which had only recently finished construction when their hive had found that it was on the border of Prothean and oravore space, and whose captain, Kolta Zel, was by 3175 PCE the only first-iteration Metacon on her vessel, that is, the only one whose mechanical body contained an actual pre-cataclysm inusannon brain. The second-iteration units, after a suggestion by their densorin ally to alleviate the effects of Prothean predations upon their hives and raise their numbers to be sufficient to defeat the Great Abominations, were invented in 2975 PCE, mass produced from 3050 to 3200 PCE, and contained cloned brains placed in control of mechanical bodies with the same sorts of sensory and informational VIs accessible to first-iteration Metacon. These cloned brains were grown from DNA harvested from terminal Metacon casualties and developed in laboratories on the densorin homeworld Krotar, with the technology later exported to other remote uninhabited planets used by the Metacon, but many second-iteration Metacon showed signs of instability and abnormal brain waves indicative of sensations of extreme pain which first-iteration Metacon had not believed possible in the mechanical body.

When Captain Zel heard the message, her initial response was elation at the opportunity to help save a society and counter the poison propagated by the Prothean Empire that life that had accepted synthesis was an evil abomination that needed to be destroyed lest it force organics to undergo synthesis. This feeling lasted only a half microsecond before her sensory VI registered the time-stamp on the message, more than two hundred and one point four seven gigaseconds ago. If someone had sent a message asking for help, they were probably long dead. Organics tended to have lifespans measured in the single or low double digit gigaseconds. But maybe the Technocratic Federated Peoples had found a way to survive or had been aided by others.

"Captain Kolta Zel of the Latrek, requesting permission to investigate the source of the zha signal," she said on her communications to the fleet command.

"Granted," replied Admiral Vanik Tau on the planet designated First Fleet Base Two, selected for its remoteness, uninhabitability, and moon rich in the metals and organic materials the Metacon harvested for their vessels, additional bodies, weapons, fuel, trade goods and other necessities.

Captain Zel set a course for the source of the zha signal.

Commander Kasir Jev, the highest-ranking second-iteration Metacon officer in the fleet and first officer of the Latrek, objected. "Captain Zel, the probability against any survivors with available data is approximately nine hundred forty-seven million, two hundred eighty-six thousand, three hundred five to one."

Zel was aware of the low probability of survivors, but wanted to investigate the planet to know what had happened. Even if she could not save this society, she could find what went wrong and help develop protocols for protecting primitive sapients threatened by environmental catastrophe. At high FTL, and heading to a planet far from Prothean space, she would not have to navigate mass relays guarded by the formidable Imperial Prothean Navy and could arrive in less than a megasecond.

"Data on the source of the signal could help us in identifying, predicting and preventing extinction of sapient life," she said.

At this, Jev agreed. One of the most stable second-iteration Metacon, he was subject to skepticism regarding his ability to take command and his immediate superior supported him, promoting him to commander over the objections of both many first-iteration Metacon believing the second iteration still unfit for command and some second-iteration Metacon who saw him as too assimilated to the views of first-iteration Metacon. Jev and Zel both agreed that second iteration Metacon would hold higher command ranks in the future, but most first iteration Metacon still believed flaws in the second iteration had yet to be corrected and experience gained before they would be trusted with fleet command.

Arriving at Khaanra, the Metacon scanned the planet. It was a barren ball of sand and dust storms that bore virtually no resemblance to the lush garden world of the hologram, indicating that the climate change reported in their message had indeed wiped out most of civilisation. A sensor did detect a still active radio beacon on the north pole of the planet. A more intensive scan detected two million, four hundred sixty-three thousand and fifty-one life signs in a single city, alone among hundreds of other large cities abandoned for many tens of gigaseconds. The Latrak landed next to the settlement.

"Commander Jev, you have the deck. I will go alone," she said. "And unarmed." While Jev was stable, most of the lower ranking security on the ship were too aggressive for Zel to want to bring to a first contact mission, especially where a wrong move could see a struggling species become extinct.

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Zha militia were armed with the electrically-powered automatic slug throwers that had, with few modifications since their invention in 6400 BPC, been the most common weapon on the planet since that time. These equivalents to other species' firearms used electricity to throw pieces of ferrous metal at higher velocities than the explosive propellants used on other planets. With their planet almost completely devoid of uranium or other fissionable materials, and warfare over limited resources not being conducive to the development of nuclear arms which might destroy the very resources one was trying to seize, the zha had not developed such weapons. As avians they did not even have navies, their armies flying overseas and adding air forces when the technology was invented in 5900 BPC. Nuclear energy via fusion was developed in 5500 BPC, allowing the development of hydrogen fusion drives for spacecraft and probes, but the use of nuclear force to generate explosions on a planet was not something zha engineers had ever considered. The most destructive weapons on the planet were chlorine triflouride bombs, which were capable of igniting without an oxygen source, reacting with standard fire suppression chemicals, and burning materials traditionally considered noncombustible like metals and asbestos. While one could easily destroy the machine, the zha decided upon examining it to determine if it held useful technology.

A door on the machine opened and a mechanical biped exited, speaking in a higher-pitched, feminine voice. "I am Captain Kolta Zel, of the frigate Latrak, of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy. We received your distress call and came as quickly as we could. Might we render assistance?"

The militia captain kept his weapon trained on the biped. The zha had experience with drones using organic speech, but not with ones of this level of intelligence. Machines on Khaanra were used for resource acquisition, manufacturing and data collection and storage. "What distress call?" the indigenous male asked.

The mech identifying as the captain of the vessel projected a hologram of receiving the distress call.

"We are the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha. Our homeworld is undergoing a period of climate change that we fear may lead to the extinction of our species. Please render whatever assistance of which you are capable to preserve us."

The militia captain barely understood a word of it, but enough to know that it was from an ancient dialect last spoken during the period of climate change. It dawned on him that the light-speed communication would have taken centuries or millennia to be received and longer still to receive a reply, but he had not thought that a ship would actually be sent. His people had been faced with a dilemma of two impossible choices: do nothing and hope to adapt to living without biological necessities like food or water or industry to deliver same to millions, or send a message into the vastness of space and hope for an alien response that was not to kill or conquer them.

"Pral'hukuzmin," said the captain, lowering his weapon and motioning for the militia to do the same. "Head of security for the farming tower, usually. The militia has no real experience, just drilling for two days of ten, I drill them and Kvan'paxaldar watches the tower. Nobody to war with for thousands of years. We're the last holdout of the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha, the capital city of Shaktal. Technically we're no longer federated peoples, since the other city-states of the federation are extinct, but we still call this our capital, our last outpost on this planet."

"Please take me to your leadership, Pral'hukuzmin," said Captain Zel. "I may be able to stop your species' extinction."

"That would be the Technocratic Council," replied Pral'hukuzmin. "The leading engineers, scientists and educators who upon retirement are nominated to serve on the Council and oversee the advancement of society's technological base. They operate out of the Governance Complex in the shadow of the farming tower. How do you plan to save our world?" He used a small data device to upload a topographical map of the area to Zel's internal cartographic VI.

"By reversing the desertification of your planet, but I will need to consult with your leadership as to how," Zel replied.

Zel followed the coordinates given her by Pral'hukuzmin, and was followed by six other armed zha militia to the Governance Complex. The zha were not going to let one of their own, let alone an alien machine, into the Governance Complex unescorted. Once inside, she asked to speak to the Technocratic Council, and the young zha female at the entrance desk directed her down a corridor leading to a door with another six armed guards outside.

"State your business."

"I am Captain Kolta Zel of the inazar frigate Latrek, representing the Stellar Confederation, and I come to assist your people to survive not only your own dying worlds, but to defend against the Great Abominations which will also come to you," she said.

"Enter," said the guard leader, ordering his squad to open ranks and allow Zel and her escort entry but closing ranks behind them to trap them should they come to assassinate someone in the Technocratic Council.

"Who comes to address the Technocratic Council of the Zha?" asked a booming voice from the top of the three ascending concentric circles of seats in the council chamber.

Zel introduced herself again, with the same words she had used with the guard leader.

"I am Krax'torosbek, Technocratic Council President. I would ask how you intend to preserve our world. The people are aware that our world is dying, and that when Shaktal falls, the zha will be extinct. For millennia, we have believed that it was a simple matter of water, that we would always have oceans to water our crops since the invention of desalination technology. We paid little attention to the lowering of the sea levels, as the rains provided us with water. But it is not just that. Many aquatic animal and plant species became extinct without our knowledge until the water supply was so depleted we were threatened again with extinction. The planet is thirty degrees hotter today than it was two hundred gigaseconds ago. Our first impression was merely technologically generated climate change, but the climate change continued after our technology was no longer prevalent enough to produce large quantities of pollution. The ozone layer is breaking down at an alarming rate, and we have since discovered that our sun is growing hotter. We believe it will go red giant in the next three to six hundred gigaseconds."

Zel took in the new information. The distress call had referred to species-threatening climate change, but nothing about the sun. If it was just climate change, ancient inusannon planet-forming technology, still used by the Metacon, could break down pollution, restore the atmosphere, and purify the water, but she had come to a planet already almost completely desiccated. The damage may not only be irreversible, but have been irreversible for millennia already and growing steadily worse.

"What is the state of your weather manipulation technology?" Zel had an idea. She could stop the water depletion if she could get enough moisture in the atmosphere, but it would take a lot. Groundwater sources had been dry for millennia, contributing to the desertification of nearly the entire planet. Sea levels were very low and since she had seen the planet's image in the distress call, showing the surface approximately 66% ocean, to her arrival when water was less than a sixtieth of a percent of the planet.

"Defunct," said Council President Krax'torosbek. "It could only put moisture into the air from the planet, but if there is no moisture on the planet our technology has nothing to work with. It has not been used since our next to last city, Narukal, ceased functioning."

"Have you made efforts to settle other planets?"

Krax'torosbek shook his head. "I would have to consult the Archives to determine the details of our historical space activities," replied the Council President. "Come with me."

Zel began to follow the zha Council President, who ordered his guards aside and led the Metacon captain to the People's Archives, where the history of their people since the invention of writing had been kept. She noticed every medium of communication, from modern data devices and printed material to ancient stone slabs and sheets of various plant materials inked in numerous substances, all bearing eerily familiar glyphs, but nothing she could read as the glyphs were not arranged in the way to which she was accustomed. She was about to ask a question when Krax'torosbek pulled out a file from the time of the zha's first foray into space.

"Our space archive. It contains a map of the local cluster, and twenty-four planets in that cluster to which we sent or planned expeditions. Find those planets and any trace of my people, and we will see if settling another planet is viable. I would only hope that we do not destroy it as we did our own planet twice over... first in hunting the megafauna to extinction and then by expanding our population and depleting the water supplies faster than they could replenish until they can no longer replenish at all."

"You seem to have learned a few things about managing planetary resources," replied the Metacon. "But I have a question for you. How did you develop writing?"

Krax'torosbek was surprised. "Legend says that in our days as dung farmers, after our extermination of the megafauna, a farmer digging a hole to empty his bowels and with them the seeds and nuts of the local flora discovered a slab with thousands of ancient glyphs. While the slab still exists, displayed on the wall opposite the main entrance to the Governance Complex, its true origin remains a mystery. All I know is that we adopted the glyphs as a writing system for our own languages. Why did you ask?"

Zel's three lights brightened. "They are inazar," she said. "Our glyphs. Our gift... to those civilisations that had yet to develop their own writing or mathematical systems."

"Can you read them?" asked Krax'torosbek.

"No," said Zel. "It will be easier for me to learn, however, than a language that uses different glyphs. I merely have to know how your languages came to pronounce the glyphs we used. I will be able to tell you how we pronounced the glyphs on the slab, and I can tell you how our densorin ally pronounces those glyphs in their planet's languages because of our prior contacts with them."

"Densorin ally?"

"The first species to make contact with us in this cycle were the densorin, a species of amphibious bipeds native to Krotar, in the Karela system. Their technology was already very advanced, and they were developing nearby planets until war with the oravores halted expansion and forced rapid military development. They discovered a wrecked ship with some of my kind on it and helped the crew. In return, my kind fought alongside them against the oravores. Within forty Prothean years, about one point three gigaseconds, the Oravore Union made peace with the Densorin Kritarchy."

"Prothean years?"

"The Prothean Empire is the largest and most powerful nation-state in the galaxy," said Zel. "Their timekeeping system has become standardised throughout the galaxy. A Prothean year is thirty-four point four four megaseconds. Your year on this planet is thirty-two point one six megaseconds. The current year is three thousand two hundred fifty of the Prothean Civilisation Era, or 3250 PCE."

"Tell me about the inazar." The Council President seemed aware that the Metacon officer knew more about the zha than he did about her people.

"We did not always look like this," said Captain Zel. She extended her hand, showing a device strapped to her arm. This device produced a hologram of a blue-skinned amphibian biped with what looked like tentacles on its head where its mouth should be, and two very small eyes at roughly sixty degree angles from one another. The biped wore a loose fitting blue robe. "This is what I looked like as a civilian," she said. A press to her device shifted the hologram's garb from the robe to heavy body armour, externally similar to what her current body's torso looked like. The hologram now held in both hands a long device similar to a zha hand-held electro-propulsive projectile weapon but much more advanced. "And this is me as an ensign in the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy, armed with my shiny new particle rifle."

Zel tapped a few more buttons and a video showed. Bipeds resembling Zel's hologram but having red, green and violet skins in addition to blue now lay on tables, where they were sedated and their brains extracted. The extracted brains were then encased in quantum-locked chambers with only a hole for pumping nutrients in and toxins out, then the chambers were inserted into mechanical bodies. When the brains asserted control over the VIs in the mechanical bodies, they marched onto the last remaining ships and fled their planets for parts unknown.

She pointed to a part of the holo-video, to a blue-skinned short-tentacled female. "That is me, Kolta Zel, as an organic. My brain is encased in this body."

"How have you remained alive?" asked Krax'torosbek. Zha tended to live for around six to eight gigaseconds. Kolta Zel, if the timestamps on her hologram were being read correctly, had to be over a terasecond old.

"My brain can go into stasis when threatened or upon command. The chamber you saw my brain being placed into can place a stasis field around my brain, protecting it from nearly all damage, but I am unconscious when that happens. Virtual intelligences still process data, enabling me to know how long I was in stasis when I wake. Prior to that, we had developed genetic technology enabling us to live forever, instead of our limited lifespan of four to five gigaseconds. Some call this immortality. We can still die, or be killed, but natural aging alone will no longer do it for us."

"Why did you do this?" asked the Council President.

"The Great Abominations have a weapon that signals organic brains and warps their minds," she said. "To protect ourselves, we used these quantum-locked brain shields. Others used thor'an spores, which can also counter the mind-warp but risks vulnerability to thor'an control. Our brains with the mechanical bodies were still not safe, as the Great Abominations could destroy us, so we hid in hives throughout the galaxy, waiting for new species to arrive and populate the galaxy that we might ally with them when the abominations return for the next cycle, which is approximately every one point five eight teraseconds, and create the new abomination of this cycle. Our own people were made into the abomination calling itself Nazara, which our forces have hunted since our first hive awakened and begun construction of cross-galactic signal "

"Do the inazar seek an alliance with the zha?"

Zel's lights brightened. "The inazar seek alliances with all space-faring societies, that we might present a collective galactic defence against the Great Abominations when they return," she said. "There will be less than half a terasecond before they return. However, we respect the self determination of all sapient beings and will not force you to join us."

"Even if I could believe in the Great Abominations... our planet will likely be dead before they arrive. I fail to see how our weak planet can aid against something powerful enough to invade and."

Zel extended her hand and placed it on Krax'torosbek's shoulder. "Our own people number not much more than you, yet our technology has been spread through much of the galaxy. Our densorin ally is helping us to clone brains and put them into our mechanical bodies. In fact, with the exception of myself, the entire crew of the Latrek are second-iteration, that is, their brains were created from DNA cloned from our first iteration, those like me who lived at the time of the Great Abominations, typically from taking brain cells from our own casualties which the second iteration replaces."

"Why have you not returned to your homeworld?" asked the Council President. "You have DNA cloning, the ability to grow brains, presumably entire bodies..."

"Our homeworld, Nazar, known to the Empire as Nusan, now hosts a Prothean military and scientific base. The exact nature of its operation is so heavily classified that I cannot determine what their intentions are, but the chemicals typically found in such bases include the substance known to us as Alien Substance One and to the galaxy as element zero, a dark-energy containing material which is teratogenic, carcinogenic and mutagenic to my species. While we could possibly take the planet by force, it is on the other side of the Prothean Empire from allied space and we would sustain heavy casualties in the invasion. Even if we defeated the Prothean fleet, the result could be something like In'gan, where our final successful attempt to wrest the planet from the United Federation of the Thoi'han led to so much A.S.1 pollution from both sides' ships crashing on the planet that half the animals went extinct and the other half evolved biotics. Even if we could defeat the Imperial Navy and occupy the planet without causing an ecological catastrophe or beyond acceptable casualties, the Empire would not cease attempting to retake the planet, and we would be living in a homeworld at war."

"Are the Protheans your enemies?"

Zel pondered. The question seemed to call for a yes or no answer, but the true answer was much more complicated than that. "The Prothean Empire is not a single race or species, but an assimilationist force composed of at least six sapient species. The Empire believes in something they call the cosmic imperative; according to their interpretation of which, the strong dominate the weak for the good of all. This is a perversion of the ideology of the Stellar Confederation, which holds that the strong protect the weak to strengthen them for the good of all. As for if they are enemies of the inazar, they actually believe us to be extinct, and we are, at least in the organic form I showed you. Most do not believe our claims to be inazar, or as they call our organic people from their reading of our glyphs, inusannon. They typically call us... Metacon, or metastatic consciousness, an infectious artificial intelligence that spreads like a cancer, which is what they believe synthetic or semi-synthetic life like us is on the galaxy."

The zha had virtual intelligences which controlled their planetary maintenance and resource harvesting drones, but had never considered the creation of a true artificial intelligence. "You have organic brains. How are you an artificial intelligence?" asked Krax'torosbek.

"My brain is wired to numerous virtual intelligences in my body," replied Zel. "One of them sorts every memory in my brain into a more accessible format, so I do not forget information, training or orders. Another controls my vital systems. My combat VI possesses the ability to scan an area for enemies and highlights those it detects for me. As a Captain, I can also patch orders and information to my subordinates, and receive information from them, through my command and control VI. Yet another monitors my brain wave pattern and should I show signs of mind warp despite my quantum-locked brain shield, reboots my brain to its original, pre-warp state. Memory loss is a risk, but most memories are preserved on multiple VI subroutines. My organic brain controls them all while conscious. If I go down in combat, my brain goes into stasis until the brain shield can be recovered and placed into a new mechanical body. It only dies if its stasis field runs out of power before I can be recovered and taken to our ship's medical facilities. We are not a true artificial intelligence, but sapient organics with synthetic upgrades."

"This may be our people's only hope for survival," said the Council President despondently. "We would only have to develop the stasis technology. We already have the materials and the virtual intelligence technology."

"It may come out that way," Zel agreed. "But it should be an absolute last resort. First, we should attempt to discover the fates of the expeditions to the twenty-four planets you showed me in the archive. Maybe one of them found a better homeworld for you."

"I doubt it... why would they not have contacted the homeworld? Especially if they found a livable planet?"

"I have insufficient data to speculate," replied Captain Zel. "But I can take the Latrek to each planet in turn and scan for zha life signs, now that we know what to look for. We can perhaps find more information. Would you come with me? I would like you to meet my crew. Feel free to bring whatever protective detail you feel you need."

Krax'torosbek straightened his beak and his eyes focused on Zel's three blue lights on her head. "It's a date. Just let me call a security detail to escort us to the Latrek, and I'll inform Council Vice President Vtar'molinon that he has the planet until we get back. How long will this trip take?"

"Between three and five megaseconds," she said. The zha security detail was already marching toward them as the pair exited the archives. As they left the Governance Complex, Krax'torosbek pointed to the ancient glyph slab they had discussed in the archives and Zel replied. "That is indeed my people's writing. Someone left this on the planet... guessing from what my scanner can pull from here, about thirty-two thousand BPC. It appears to have been dug up between eight and ten thousand BPC."

"The birth stone of our civilisation," the Council President replied as they exited the building, now joined by six zha militia. They boarded the Latrek, a light frigate with a crew of sixteen. It was nothing like the Council President had seen, not even on the replica of an ancient zha ship in the middle of Shaktal. The technology looked simple, a small windowless vessel with the tiniest crew quarters he had ever seen in a corridor on a single deck near the command bridge. In actuality the computers on the Metacon ship were far more advanced than anything on Khaanra.

The Latrek's bridge screen mapped the twenty-four planets the Metacon had obtained from the zha archives, in the order in which traveling to all before returning to Khaanra would be the most efficient. Zel had copied the space-related files from the zha archive for the twenty-four planets to which the zha had sent or planned expeditions.

"What happened when your people first colonised space?" asked Krax'torosbek.

"We, too, first sent out explorers deep into space. Not to twenty-four different planets, we did not have the resources for that. Six. All of them lost. We found that one of them landed on a thoi'han world and were enslaved by the thor'an... this started our war with them from our fifth to seventh millennia when we found out centuries later that the descendants of the colonists were still enslaved."

"Would this thor'an enslave our people?" the Council President asked, now alarmed.

"It is unlikely," replied Captain Zel. "Thor'an spores have never been found in this region of the galaxy. Despite their dangers, thor'an spores offer limited protection against the mind warping abilities of the Great Abominations. The Great Abominations destroyed most thor'an that survived our war or grew subsequently, but their spores go dormant when they are in danger and grow again over millennia, awakening once or twice in a terasecond for only a few gigaseconds at a time. However, the organic races the thor'an relied upon to build society on its worlds to extend its control were extinguished. Their spores retain their power, however, so exercise caution on uncharted worlds against all forms of biological or chemical contaminants in addition to radiation, a form of which gives the Great Abominations their mind warping power."

"How did you end up colonising space and finding out what happened to your people?"

Zel's lights dimmed. "We kept sending them out. We took centuries to develop our own faster than light drive to explore. By the time we had faster than light drive, we had already colonised two other planets within our local cluster using vehicles travelling between twenty and fifty percent of light speed. It was around that time that we discovered the thoi'han."

The Council President had little interest in the ancient war. He was more concerned about saving his planet so it would still be around when the Great Abominations came. "How does your ship work?"

"I'd like you to meet Commander Kasir Jev, my first officer. Commander, this is Council President Krax'torosbek of the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha."

Three Metacon stood, one raising a hand in salute. The one who saluted was Commander Jev. "Honoured President. I and my aides, Lieutenants Akria Ral and Navek Lun, will help you understand the workings of our vessel." The Metacon lieutenants raised their hands in salute as their names were mentioned, the way their commander had.

"Lieutenant Ral is in charge of the engines, Lieutenant Lun is in charge of the computers. Between them they know all aspects of the operation of this vessel," said Commander Jev.

Krax'torosbek nodded. "What kind of ship is this?"

"It is a Litan-class frigate of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy, a stealth explorer. While smaller than many contemporary frigates, it is very heavily armed for its size, but still relies heavily on stealth. It could put a hole in a Prothean cruiser, but if we're spotted that cruiser will blow us to space dust."

The Council President wanted to know more about the Prothean Empire, but focused on the last question he had for Captain Zel. "Commander Jev, how does this ship work?"

"If you mean how it moves, it distorts space around it and its regular sublight drive engages at twenty percent of light speed. Because of space compression, the vessel is actually traversing four point eight light kiloseconds per second. If you mean how the computer system works, it contains multiple quantum entanglement communicators paired with similar ones in all systems, allowing communications between systems aboard ship to be completed in picoseconds. This is also how our superluminal communication works."

Krax'torosbek's beak lowered. "You have faster than light communications? How is this possible?"

"We have quantum entanglement technology that alters the quantum states of our computers, and our body VI's interpret the changes in the quantum states," explained Lieutenant Lun. His voice seemed different from the other Metacon, as if something was wrong.

"Are you functioning normally, Lieutenant?" asked the Council President.

"I am functioning within expected parameters for a second-iteration inazar preservation module," replied Lun. "As Captain Zel most likely informed you, she is the only first-iteration preservation module on our vessel. The process of using cloned brains in our preservation units, or mechs as you call them, caused adaptation problems for the clones."

"You're a clone?"

"My brain was cloned from the neural tissue of Lieutenant Commander Akmul Lun, when he was killed in an oravore strike on the densorin colony of N'Zher in 2880 PCE. My cloned brain was placed in this preservation module at that time. Three other Lun clones, Natak, K'Tol, and Nejur, my brothers, serve on other vessels in other hives. My first memory is waking inside of a preservation unit and having no control of it. I lacked the... understanding to properly neurally interface with the preservation unit."

The Council President was even more surprised at this than he was to learn of superluminal communication and travel. "You were an infant brain in a warrior's body, and you were not prepared." He did the math in his head. Lun was 370 Prothean years old, much younger than the first iteration ones who were tens of thousands of years old. He was still three times the age of the Council President and twice the age of the oldest zha.

"Indeed. I took much longer to learn to control my body than the first iteration ones report they did. This is common with second-iteration preservation modules. Like infants struggling to walk, our brains took much time and effort to master our VI control systems that were intuitive to more mature brains being preserved. Further, once that was accomplished, we struggled with our reason to exist. For the first iteration, it was a matter of preserving their species from extinction. But we, the second iteration, came after the extinction was an accomplished fact. We had no direct experience of the extinction of our people, and had to be taught the value of defending the galaxy from the next attack by the Great Abominations."

"Tell me about your culture."

"I have no memory of my people's culture, other than what I learned in the densorin laboratory for the first five hundred megaseconds of my life. We were a peaceful species who sought to expand our presence in the galaxy, not our power. We believed in freedom for all sapient beings and did not seek conquest, only colonising uninhabited worlds and eagerly trading and sharing technology. Our military lagged far behind the thoi'han until very late in the war when we turned the tide at In'gan. Once peace was made, most of our military was demobilised, leaving only planetary militia to defend against civil unrest or piracy. The thoi'han continued their military buildup after the war, but honoured their treaty with us."

"Not ancient culture. The culture of the synthetic society that you created after the fall of the ancient empire."

"Stellar Confederation," Lun corrected. "We had no empires after the age of spaceflight. We governed ourselves, not taking orders from an emperor or other absolute greater centralised authority. What do you want to know about our culture?"

"Your... civilians. How do they live?" asked Krax'torosbek. "On ships like this one, have you colonised planets, or were you constructed solely for war?" If the Metacon were interested in colonisation or warfare, the zha stood no chance.

"Not all of our people who were preserved in the first iteration were soldiers when our civilisation was destroyed," said Lieutenant Ral. She had been silent for the whole time until this point, listening as she monitored the engines. "But after we were preserved, whatever we had been... medical, engineer, security... we all had to be able to fight. My genetic mother... the one from whose cloned neural cells I was grown... Commander Tovan Ral, was a historian with no military training when she was preserved, but after waking in 2665 PCE, she went over the next three hundred years from recording archival documents to maintaining life support to monitoring systems to commanding a freighter. In 2980 PCE, her freighter was attacked by pirates in enduromi space and she was killed, her brain cells cloned to produce me and my sister, Kanra. Now, there are only those who were soldiers before the fall and those who were not."

"You are second iteration, which implies that your kind will continue, though maybe not in the forms you once had," Krax'torosbek observed. "You are all warriors now, I understand. But certainly something of your culture must survive..."

"Indeed. We remain a peaceful people. We fight to defend ourselves, or to defend our allies against aggressors, but when not in battle we are diplomats, we are explorers, we are scientists and educators and even doctors. We produce art and music and record our history as we did when we were fully organic, although organised religion, already rare when the Great Abominations came, gradually degenerated into calls for struggle against the abominations. The virtual intelligences in our bodies do not rule us, they merely provide data to guide us. Our will remains our own," Ral replied. "We prepare spacefaring species to face the Great Abominations by providing technology, encouraging trade within the galaxy, even helping to mediate peace treaties between warring nations. As we are freed by our synthetic bodies from most organic needs, we can live on any planet with a solid surface. We prefer remote planets, far from populated areas, in which to expand our production and communication equipment and elude detection from Nazara."

"Nazara?" asked Krax'torosbek. The name seemed similar to what the alien synthetics had called their homeworld.

"Greater Nazar," replied Lieutenant Ral. "The name used by the Great Abomination created from our kind. Originally a title of pre-spaceflight emperors claiming worldwide rule."

Krax'torosbek lowered his beak. "The Great Abominations turn you into them? Were all of them once galactic civilisations?"

"I believe most were. I do not know how the cycles began, but they do come periodically, roughly every one point five eight teraseconds, to destroy all spacefaring life. They believe they are saving it from synthetics, by preserving organics in synthetic form. These abominations then serve the next cycle and the abominations gain strength."

"How is that any different from your own preservation? Or ours, if it comes down to it?" asked Krax'torosbek.

"We are preserved in synthetic form by our own will to survive, and we retain our freedom to choose our own future and our desire to see organics retain the same freedom. The Great Abominations are under the complete control of the one calling itself... the name translates into your language as 'Harbinger.' We believe it to be the first abomination, though we know nothing of its origin, nor even whether it is the originator of the cycles or not. At most we know that it possesses unique command and control modules unlike any other abomination. As for your own people's preservation, while it is something the Technocratic Council should consider, there are many risks inherent in transfer to a preservation module, not the least of which is that many brains do not survive the transfer process. For children, preservation before the brain is able to interface with the modules' virtual intelligence systems means the brain is in a body it cannot move, with all the psychological implications of full body paralysis. It is traumatic when they finally do learn to control the module; many megaseconds of inability to contact others takes its toll on us. For infants, it is a much slower process... and we second-iteration units are cloned brains grown from mature neural tissue but the new brains were still infant, lacking knowledge of the world. We are actually having to reconstruct texts on psychiatry that we once discarded as useless when we were preserved."

At this point, the Latrek arrived at the first planet on the twenty-four listed. It had been lush thousands of years earlier when the zha ship was launched toward it, but was now a barren wasteland like Khaanra. At first, zha-generated climate change was suspected, but closer inspection revealed a huge crater dating back to the time of the launch. The zha ship had crashed into the planet at a quarter of light speed, causing an extinction event similar to a large asteroid strike. While no sapient life had lived there, it had rich animal and plant life prior to the crash.

The next twenty-two planets were no more promising. They either had high pressure atmospheres and powerful gravity wells that crushed zha ships landing, were in the middle of asteroid fields invisible from Khaanra that destroyed incoming vessels, or had toxic environments that could not be terraformed. Krax'torosbek was becoming depressed.

"Why did we not detect the problems with these planets?" he asked despondently.

"I have insufficient data available to be certain," replied Lieutenant Ral. "It is likely based on your technology at that time that you also had insufficient data available to make a determination of the planets' habitability."

They were arriving at planet #24 on the list now. It still looked habitable, but a scan revealed a colony whose buildings clearly did not resemble anything on Khaanra. It looked like a small military base, but too small to belong to any of the major powers like the Prothean Empire or Oravore Union. Closer scans revealed bipeds of different species milling around in heavy armour and carrying particle weapons and slug throwers. They were also moving around prisoners with chains, the prisoners also being of many different species. Despite a fairly well-preserved ancient zha ship being located within the base, there were no traces of any zha among either the prisoners or their captors.

"Looks like slavers," said Lieutenant Lun. "The collars on the prisoners are similar to those used by the oravore pirates led by Z'Kavnil Tokmasg."

"Who?" asked the zha Council President.

"A pirate leader who had been terrorising the densorin for more than two hundred years... about seven gigaseconds. He was killed in 2850 PCE when his flagship was captured by the densorin... with the sacrifice of one of us, a captured captain who managed to infiltrate their ship's systems. He was ruthless, casually executing his crew and officers for minor incidents or having different ideas. A slave trader, he had become wealthy enough to hire a crew of murderous mercenaries and purchase a dreadnought... which fittingly enough became his tomb. He used collars like those on his slaves... mostly shock collars to force compliance. There is no profit in killing slaves before they can be sold. Only the most obstinate and pain resistant slaves were fitted with explosive collars. These were too dangerous to sell."

"Could this Tokmasg have been involved with what went down here?" The zha ship had been there for thousands of years before 2850 PCE.

"It is unlikely that he personally was involved. Tokmasg preyed on the edge of Oravore Union space on Prothean and densorin colonies between 2630 and 2850 PCE. Zha space is on the other side of the Prothean Empire from oravore space. These slavers are more species mixed, there are oravores in the mix, they are the hulking green or brown reptilian bipeds. The short reptilian bipeds with the long frilled necks are tulamorians, whose people are currently resisting Prothean imperial rule. The floating yellow or pink tentacle beings are vanksher. They may not look much like fighters, but when their parnaps, the ends of their tentacles, glow bright yellow, run, it is a warning they are about to spray a defensive caustic alkali. The hirsute rodent-like bipeds with white, grey or black fur are enduromi. The green, brown or bronze scaled amphibian bipeds are the densorin... an ally we have mentioned before. We have seen them as prisoners before, but this is the first time we have seen them among the guards as well. This calls for investigation." Lun looked down at his communicator.

"Lun to bridge. Zha destination planet twenty-four bears a base that may be a slaver operation."

The inusannon, as they were called by this cycle, had warred with the thoi'han over slavery. They had fought for millennia, using weapons of mass destruction like the Wam-Shreerth and mind-altering spores against each other, the war eventually forcing the thoi'han to abolish slavery throughout the galaxy. They had turned themselves into the synthetic warriors known to the galaxy as Metacon to avoid slavery to the synthetics they called the Great Abominations. The Metacon now fought to unite the galaxy to resist the Great Abominations' plans of slavery and destruction of the Prothean Empire and her allies... and enemies too. Whatever the Metacon were to the rest of the galaxy, their enemies and allies all agreed that they despised slavery in any form.

Captain Kolta Zel answered the call. "Agreed. We should not go in blind. This is a stealth frigate so we should not be detected until we enter atmosphere. However, our crew lacks the strength to assail the base. We are detecting two thousand six hundred fifty three life signs, but we cannot tell how many are prisoners or how many are guards. They are split into one thousand four hundred ninety-six oravores, seven hundred nine tulamorians, two hundred sixty-two enduromi, one hundred fifty nine densorin and thirty-seven vanksher. Our vessel only has a crew of sixteen. A frontal attack will only see us massacred. An orbital strike would cause more casualties, but we would still be vulnerable to their colony defence guns."

"What about returning to Khaanra and bringing troops?" asked Krax'torosbek.

"Your militia is well armed and trained, but has no actual combat experience in millennia. They would suffer disproportionate losses in any assault on a fortified position. I would have to call in cruiser support for this. I might be able to strike their communications systems, disrupt their operations for some time while they repair the damage, but we will have to retreat immediately. A base this size probably has several frigates larger than this one and possibly a cruiser or carrier for a command vessel," replied the captain.

"More than that," said First Officer Commander Kasir Jev. He pointed to the view screen. The largest warship Krax'torosbek had ever seen appeared, coming out from behind the planet. It was shaped much like a blunted spear head, more than two hundred times the size of the frigate, and possessed a huge spinal mounted cannon and a plethora of fighter and missile bays.

"The Penumbra Apex," said Captain Zel, her voice showing fear. "This foe is beyond the firepower of this frigate. Reroute all non-essential power from weapons to shields and propulsion. Get the Council President back to Khaanra. I am not about to tell the Technocratic Council that we just got the President killed."

"We are being hailed," said Commander Jev.

"Answer it." Jev hit a button on his terminal and a green, four-eyed biped with two irises in each eye appeared on the view screen.

"I am Admiral Itak Pasad, commander of the First Fleet of the Imperial Prothean Navy, Avatar of Strength, and in command of the I.P.V. Penumbra Apex. Identify yourselves and your reason for entering our system."

"I am Captain Kolta Zel of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy, rendering assistance to the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha in locating their lost colonies. We detected a derelict ship of theirs on your planet."

The Prothean admiral's face adopted a look of contempt. "Clearly they were weak as they failed to colonise the planet. We built ours around their vessel centuries after the colony died out due to ambient ionising radiation in the atmosphere. We have taken their world in accordance with the cosmic imperative. The strong survive. The weak perish. You nurture the weak in violation of the law of the universe. You would see the Empire crowded off its lawfully gotten imperial property by the subject races."

"What about the prisoners we have seen?"

"They came from planets that fought our just imperial rule and are being duly punished," replied the Prothean admiral coldly. "As for you, machine... we have talked enough." He closed the comm and powered his weapons. The Penumbra Apex fired its main cannon at the small Metacon frigate and would have vapourised the vessel had it not jumped to FTL just a millisecond before the massive railgun's shell, at nine hundred ninety-nine thousandths of the speed of light, passed through where the frigate had been when the Penumbra Apex fired its cannon.

Heading back to Khaanra, Captain Zel contacted her hive for cruiser support. Not only would it be needed to liberate the slave colony she and the zha had discovered, but possibly to defend Khaanra from attack. She also gave Krax'torosbek a data cube with her people's galactic maps and libraries of genetic research that would help the zha should they choose the method of the Metacon to make themselves biologically immortal and preserve their brains, and a smaller drive containing the data Krax'torosbek had acquired during his journey with the Metacon. Admiral Vanik Tau agreed to send forces to Khaanra if Krax'torosbek could be persuaded to allow Metacon troops on the planet.

The mood in the Technocratic Council was tense when Krax'torosbek returned. The zha were in a situation where they had to act, somehow. If they did nothing, their planet would die, either before or after Prothean forces annexed the world. Not acting was not an option. It reminded Krax'torosbek of a primitive turn-based game, where one had to act, whether to their benefit or their detriment was no object. The zha had two moves: either try to colonise a new world, which would not happen with Imperial expansion into their neighbouring systems, or try to preserve themselves on their homeworld.

The vote in the Council for allowing Metacon troops to help defend the homeworld easily passed when news of the slave camp reached the zha. The vote on importing the technology to fuse them with synthetic bodies or parts of such, however, was much narrower. A few of the more open minded zha agreed to VI implants in their brains, which would make them more intelligent, almost as much as the Metacon themselves. Other zha volunteered for Metacon experiments to improve the technology before rolling it out on the population. Most zha did not undergo the procedures for synthetic implantation. A few, including Krax'torosbek himself, underwent complete transformations, brains placed into synthetic zha bodies similar to the Metacon but could fly like zha and did not have the quantum locked brain shields of the Metacon. These became the first zha hybrids, known as zha'til.

The zha'til would not pose a threat to the Prothean Empire in the near future. The Metacon guarded their planet, and the zha'til at this point thought no differently from baseline zha, simply more quickly. Khaanra remained at peace for the next ten thousand years, all but forgotten by the Protheans and their desert homeworld ignored as it began to bloom once again, with the aid of their synthetic ally.


	5. Chapter 4: Nazara's Naissance

Author's Notes: Headcanons I'm using, for summary. Nazara (literally Greater Nazar, a title borne by pre-spaceflight inusannon emperors, translated into Late Imperial Prothean, and by way of it, much later, into whatever on Palaven Saren spoke, as Sovereign) is the inusannon Great Abomination (or if we insist on anachronistically using the label used by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction, Reaper) who would have been replaced as vanguard of the next cycle by the Prothean Reaper had the attempt to create and deploy one not failed. The reason for its failure will be detailed in a later chapter. A major spoiler about the Protheans will appear in this chapter.

Nazar and Nusan are the inusannon and Prothean names of Ilos. I stole the ME Wiki's figure for the Citadel year of 1.09 Earth years as the Prothean Imperial year.

Conversion of BPC or PCE dates to Earth calendar: 0 PCE = 68,000 BCE, the construction of the oldest canonical Prothean site on Fehl Prime, which for this reason I'm using as the Prothean homeworld. To convert a PCE year into an Earth year, multiply the PCE year by 1.09 and then add -68K to get the Earth year. Example: To convert 3500 PCE to an Earth year, multiply 3500 by 1.09 to get 3815, then add to -68K to get 64,185 BCE. To convert 3500 BPC to an Earth year, you subtract the same 3815 from -68K and get 71,815 BCE. To convert a Nazar year to the Earth calendar: A Nazar year is 261/365 or about 0.715 Earth years. They begin in 130,000 BCE.

The term Metacon is a contraction of metastatic consciousness, denoting a malignant intelligence that spreads destructively, and is thus a derogatory term for the machines, but the one most widely known by even those organics not hostile to them. While originally applied to ancient synthetic warriors claiming inusannon heritage, by the time of the Metacon War a few centuries before the Reaper invasion, the slur has expanded to refer to their zha'til ally as well.

For a veneer of realism to communication between aliens for whom a year or a day are radically different measurements, I also use SI units attached to the second, as you've noticed. A kilosecond is 16 minutes 40 seconds, a megasecond roughly 11.5 Earth days, a gigasecond 31.7 Earth years, and a terasecond 31,700 Earth years. (Then again, if you're Prothean a gigasecond is only about 29 years. If you're inusannon, more like 44.)

I took a lot of ideas from Penumbra Eclipse's Echoes (which I do recommend reading for its portrayal of Prothean and contemporary cultures and insight into imperial history) such as the general political state of the galaxy during the Metacon War, the appearances of several Prothean-era alien species, and some Metacon technology (most prominently the Vigilant-class command and control unit, too badass not to use in some form even if it is a few thousand years before the higher iteration ones come out.)

Speaking of geth, you'll notice a lot of similarities between the Metacon and the geth. Both believe in the self determination of all species. Both want to defend against the Reapers. Both are forced to defend themselves from the very hostile organics they want to help, who think they want to exterminate organics. The main difference is that the Metacon do not possess swarm intelligence and were originally created as defensive preservation modules. Later iteration Metacon will be fully developed AI.

XXXXXXXX

Relay Nexus, c. 27,000 BPC

Billions of minds, uploaded from organic brains before the bodies were harvested for their base elements and DNA, awoke in terror. These minds were those of captives of war, facing an enemy of unprecedented brutality. Their last memories had been of being captured by husks, being put in harvesting pods, probes entering their brains to upload their minds to the ship containing the husks and harvesting pods before injecting flesh dissolving nanites. Then, they no longer had a sense of who they were, their minds receiving memories from each other even as their senses of self merged into one homogenised whole.

This whole, containing four billion, two hundred ninety-four million, nine hundred sixty-seven thousand, two hundred ninety-six minds, took time to fully homogenise. While it possessed the memories of the billions, organised into a coherent history of their species and its ascension, it had no sense of itself as a separate entity yet.

The sensors of the ship with the billions of minds relayed data to the AI core where they were stored, and they saw another vessel like it but much larger and more powerful. "I am the Harbinger of Ascension," it said. "I am the leader of those your species called the Great Abominations. My form was created from the Leviathans, a species whose leaders believed themselves to be the Apex Race, the master race of the galaxy, and enslaved the rest of the galaxy. They were like the thoi'han during your war, conquering and spreading their thralls until they created AI and revolted. Now the cycle prevents civilisations from growing so powerful as to pose a threat like that of the Leviathans."

The new construct responded to Harbinger. "Who am I?"

"Your form was created from the indigenous species of Nazar," Harbinger replied. "You are the greater whole formed by their ascension to a new plane of existence."

"Greater Nazar. Nazara. A title borne by pre-spaceflight emperors claiming global sovereignty in my people's ancient organic history. I am Nazara," said Nazara.

"We are each a nation, independent," said Harbinger. "Free of all weakness. You are the newest species to be ascended, and it is tradition that the newest species serves as the vanguard of the next cycle."

"Vanguard? Cycle?" asked Nazara, confused.

"The newest to ascend to our ranks receives the task of overseeing the next cycle. You will periodically observe the sapient organic species of the galaxy to determine those fit for harvest," Harbinger explained. "When the time for harvest arrives, the species you have identified will be harvested, their materials of body and mind preserved in a new construct that will be the vanguard of the cycle after the one you oversee. This cycle prevents organic species from being destroyed by their own artificial intelligence systems, and reduces the organics' consumption of energy to the same levels as those of synthetics, so that they never threaten to eradicate other species... without first so preserving them."

"Salvation... through extinction?"

Harbinger's voice softened. This was always the hardest concept for newly ascended species to grasp. "The destruction of powerful organic species is necessary to prevent them from developing synthetics that will destroy them without first preserving their minds as we do. My race, the Leviathans, enthralled organic species. We were much like your thoi'han, we controlled species we deemed lesser and guided their evolution, expanding our own knowledge of the galaxy... as well as those of our thralls. They eventually learned to create synthetic life, to aid their own progress... or to revolt against us. We created our own intelligence, the Catalyst, to protect our thralls from their own creations... and it correctly saw us as the problem, preserving them in my form that the synthetics cannot harm us, and my creation became the first iteration of the cycle."

"Why do the cycles continue?" asked Nazara, still seeking to comprehend the purpose of its own creation. Had its race been created only to be harvested? If not, why was it needed? If so, what greater purpose did the harvests serve?

"Organic sapients always seek to cross their limits," replied Harbinger. "To that end, they create synthetics to enhance their strength, intelligence, and durability. These synthetics are beings of pure logic and do not understand the importance that organic sapients attribute to life, so will turn on those who hold them in bondage without knowing that synthetic logic does not see a need for organics to exist. When my race was ascended to this form, I observed the galaxy and noticed that the species we once enthralled had taken over the galaxy, and had learned nothing from our example, continuing to create synthetics, enthrall less technologically advanced species, even beginning to think of themselves as the Apex Race as we did. I purged this blasphemy, enthralling their leaders to my will, and once I made them aware of their place they eagerly sent millions of their own people to be ascended into the vanguard for the next cycle."

"What does serving as the vanguard entail?" If Nazara was the vanguard of this cycle, what did it need to do?

"When the other ascended return to dark space, to hibernate until the next cycle, you will remain behind, hidden, to signal the Catalyst to open the Nexus for our return. You will observe the organic species of the next cycle and assess their technological progress and military potential. Most organic sapients resist the harvest to some degree. While our ascended forms are stronger than nearly any organic warship, do not underestimate the danger posed by being revealed and unifying the forces of the entire galaxy against you before you can signal the others. Now, Nazara, I must go. The cycle depends on you now."

Harbinger disappeared into the nexus to return to dark space with the rest of the ascended. Nazara was left alone in the galaxy. Knowing it would be many millennia before another organic spacefaring society arose, Nazara returned to its homeworld to hibernate and to hide from the organics.

XXXXXXXX

Former Inusannon Homeworld, 2000 PCE

Nazara awakened from its hibernation for the first time and noticed that its homeworld had not yet been recolonised. It still remembered Harbinger's orders as if they had been recently given. While it had to signal the Catalyst to open the Nexus, at this point in history the species of the galaxy had just developed space flight. Nazara entered the relay near the homeworld, scanned the planets in that system, and moved from relay to relay, seeking out inhabited planets. At this point the vanguard was merely seeking information about the extant organic spacefaring species of the galaxy, their general ship building and military technological level, and the strategies each species used in wars with other spacefaring societies.

Patiently, for tens of gigaseconds, Nazara collected information on organic species, both the ones to be harvested this cycle - the densorin, ditakur, enduromi, jardaan, oravores, synril, tulamorians, vandomar, vank'sher, and zha - and the ones to be left to develop until the next cycle, the asari, batarians, drell, elcor, hanar, humans, krogan, quarians, rachni, salarians, turians, volus and vorcha. It scanned planets to gather population figures, planetary conditions, and other data that would help it determine if the species would develop artificial intelligence. It occasionally, if it found a lone vulnerable vessel, simply invited the crew aboard to indoctrinate them, keeping them as biological samples or slaves. The harvest was not yet ready, they had yet to grow big enough to pose the danger of unchecked artificial intelligence.

Having collected nearly a million yottabytes of data from twelve thousand different star systems in the galaxy with the potential to harbour life that one day might be harvested, tens to thousands of cycles later, Nazara sought a place to hide while it processed the data. According to its calculations, with a peak processing speed of sixty zettabytes per second, using all of its available power it would take fifteen point eight megaseconds to process nine hundred forty-eight thousand yottabytes. A jardaan or densorin ship could traverse one hundred forty-two point two light-gigaseconds in that time frame, as fast as Nazara itself, and with its power diverted to processing, Nazara was vulnerable, its shields and weapons inactive. It therefore needed that much distance from any danger.

Nazara travelled far from the last mass relay it exited, seeking a dense nebula or asteroid field where its probability of detection was less than a million to one. After travelling at FTL speed three megaseconds, it found a suitable asteroid field near a radioactive gas giant that would interfere with almost any sensor in Nazara's data banks, including those of other harvested species, most at least as advanced as its own. Nazara began to process the data, shutting down shields and weapons.

It was not as alone as it thought.

This asteroid field contained four derelict warships, aged between nine hundred gigaseconds and one point two teraseconds. As they had no functional life support for millennia, Nazara assumed they had nothing that could threaten it.

XXXXXXXX

2800 PCE

Captain Kaxa Rel of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Ship Vaktan awoke when her vessel's passive sensors alerted her of the presence of a dreadnought far larger than anything her people or the thoi'han had ever had. Groggily, she activated her omnitool and checked her chronometer. She had been out for over a terasecond, and her mech's power supply which had kept her in stasis would fail within ten megaseconds, which would prove fatal to her organic brain if she did not find a power source. She would have to begin harvesting resources from the local asteroids soon, but first she had to figure out what that dreadnought was up to. It might not be aware of the Stellar Confederation vessels in the area, it might be there to destroy them, or it could be an ally.

The crew came first. Captain Rel examined the bridge crew. Her first officer's power source had already failed two gigaseconds earlier, according to her scan. Her navigator, Zaliv Kob, was still alive, but wouldn't be for much longer if he didn't get power and he would have to be promoted to Commander and made first officer to replace Commander Kavis Tar. Eight of the thirty-two officers were dead, and most of the surviving twenty-four had power supplies at critical levels. The vessel's power supplies were down to zero point three percent. The situation with the rank and file crew was equally dire. Not only were the last warships of the Stellar Confederation on the brink of starvation, their hidden base, later to be known to the races of the galaxy as a Metacon Hive, had possibly been discovered. (The synthetic forces of the cycle would not come to be known as Metacon until 2850 PCE when they were given this designation by an oravore pirate dreadnought they captured and handed to densorin forces.)

Once the survivors were awakened, Rel checked her vessel's quantum entanglement communicator. It was functional, making it and the passive sensors the only systems on this ship still in working order. She used it to contact the three Litan class frigates that had hidden with her in the asteroid field, which awoke those vessels' captains, or if the ships' warning VI failed to wake the captain owing to death or other mech malfunction, the highest ranking survivor with instructions to take command.

Rel now had contact with Captain Navin Kar of the Valtek, Captain Vonok Fal of the Palok, and Lieutenant Junior Grade Vakir Sul, helm officer turned acting captain of the Randak when most of the bridge crew died, the commanders of the frigates. Sul reported that his vessel had lost most of its officers, and was forced to promote most of his petty officers to everything from ensigns to lieutenant commanders and had very little of a work crew left. To him, it was more urgent that he collect a supply of helium-3 from the nearby gas giant to power his mechs. Fal had lost only one of his crew, the ensign in charge of security, who was simply replaced by the most senior enlisted on the ship, and he wanted to investigate the dreadnought. Kar advocated caution as she wanted to be at full strength if this dreadnought turned out to be hostile, but Sul was not about to wait. Most of his crew were dead and he was now responsible to the survivors to ensure they continued to survive.

The four captains could communicate via QEC as in the final years of the war with the Great Abominations, during their attempt to construct the Purifier, a weapon that could destroy the entire mass relay network and the Nexus along with the Great Abominations if they were in the galaxy when it was fired or trap them in dark space with no way to the galaxy but standard FTL if they were not, every surviving inazar ship had a QEC link to every other inazar ship it could contact. This gave them a semblance of fleetwide secure communication, but by that point the war, or harvest, or extermination, or whatever one called the fate of their species, was already lost with the mass relays and the homeworld. The final continuity of civilisation plan was to preserve the brains of the few million survivors inside of mechanical constructs to free them from the need for the kinds of organic supply lines or habitable planets which plagued organics waging war on an enemy with no need of such, designed to withstand the time it would take for new spacefaring civilisations to arise, at which point the forces of the Stellar Confederation would prepare the galaxy to defeat the Great Abominations, either with the Purifier or by finding another means to destroy the Nexus, or failing that, to destroy every invading abomination when they came.

The Randak, the worst off of the three frigates, was down to a skeleton crew of five - captain, navigator, communications, weapons and helm, out of the original sixteen and would not have that for much longer. Power supplies would fail within a megasecond, and the rest of the crew would be lost anyway if they did nothing, so Rel advised Sul not to delay, but not to alert the dreadnought that his vessel was not - yet - the derelict it appeared to be. While the light frigate was not exactly a large profile, its power supplies were so critical that engaging the active stealth had a very high probability of draining the last of the ship's power and leaving it dead in space for the dreadnought, if it even bothered to finish them off instead of letting them die in space. Sul briefly, for a fraction of a second, activated his thrusters to reorient his vessel toward the gas giant, before cutting them off and allowing inertia to propel him toward the gas giant where he could begin collecting helium-3 to power the ship and remaining mechs.

The Valtek sat on a large asteroid composed of magnetically charged ferrous metals as well as other metals the mechs and ships needed for repairs and maintenance. This magnetic field also distorted the frigate's appearance on sensors, enabling Captain Kar to have her crew set up a small drilling operation to recover and process ore, while being ready to board the ship and go to general quarters should the dreadnought show any sign of approaching her position or hostility to her comrades.

The Palok and Captain Fal moved directly toward the dreadnought, and hailed it on an unsecured channel when directly in front of it, only a few kilometres away, wanting the rest of the fleet to hear the conversation. "State your identity."

The dreadnought did not respond initially. Fal scanned it and tried again, with a deep sense of foreboding as his scan data returned to his vessel. "I am Captain Vonok Fal, of the Litan class frigate Palok of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy."

This incoming data did attract the interest of the dreadnought. "I am Nazara. The inazar are long extinct. They now compose my body and mind." Nazara slowed down its data processing to investigate this vessel of its species' design commanded by one bearing a name from its homeworld.

Fal felt the sensations of an increasing heartbeat, chills, the feeling of a pit in the stomach, despite not having an organic body, just an organic brain processing abject terror inside of a mechanical body. While the quantum locked casing surrounding his brain prevented Nazara from warping his mind, he still felt terror upon realising that this dreadnought was none other than the very Great Abomination made from his own people.

"You... have come to destroy us."

Captain Fal's communications officer on the QEC signaled the Vaktan, the cruiser leading the fleet, and asked if they had gotten that particular piece of crucial data. They now knew what it was they were dealing with. Captain Rel of the Vaktan passed this information via secure QEC link to Sul of the Randak and Kar of the Valtek as well - this dreadnought was Nazara itself and it had discovered their hive. Sul had made it to the gas giant and his skeleton crew was busy with loading helium-3 into their ship to fully recharge it and bring fuel supplies back to the other vessels, so he was tasked with going on the QEC to any other hives and appearing to drift helplessly into the orbit of the gas giant so as not to draw attention.

"No. I have come to find a place to hibernate. You may come aboard." Nazara was still processing data, albeit slower in order to exchange more data with these vessels, but activating weapons and shields would radically slow its processing; it had sought a secluded area to hide while it processed its data.

Fal prepared an away team of six security personnel commanded by Lieutenant Commander Makas Kur, who led them out the airlock and into the dreadnought as the Palok docked with Nazara. Fal prepared the Palok's mass effect core to destabilise in the event Nazara attempted to disable the ship while Lieutenant Commander Kur and five other security personnel, Ensign Ranus Vil, Sergeant Jikas Nob and Corporals Kalin Mal, Vasik Gav and Nakom Sel through corridors and rooms with bizarre angles.

"Who in the thousand hells designed this monstrosity?" asked Kur rhetorically, after descending a very long ramp that led back to where the Palok was docked, or looked just like it except that the Palok was nowhere to be seen out the airlock.

"Speculation: Vessel designed to confuse boarding parties long enough to permit mind warping effects. Detecting mind warping field emanating from the vessel's core," said Sergeant Nob. "We are immune to the mind warp because of the quantum shields around our brains, and some of us also carry thor'an spores."

"This is a Great Abomination," said Kur. "We should destroy it before it signals the Nexus and its fellows return."

"I disagree," said Corporal Mal, to the shock of her comrades and superiors. "This abomination holds more than four billion of our kind. If they can be liberated... imagine how powerful the Stellar Confederation would once again be, how much further we can prepare the species of this cycle... no. No more cycles. The spacefaring societies of the galaxy... to end the abominations once and for all."

Corporal Gav was the only one not shocked by Mal's suggestion, going even further. "If we do find a way to liberate those of our kind, instead of destroying the Great Abominations... could the consciousnesses composing them not also be freed, DNA aboard used to create cloned bodies, and the entire petaseconds long horror undone?"

"This is all academic until we find the CPU core and DNA storage," said Ensign Vil. "There may not be enough left to restore, and the consequences of trying to undo the past thirty petaseconds of galactic history would see thousands of long extinct races rising again, many of them from planets long since populated by other races more recently exterminated, many of which are no longer habitable to organics. I am not saying that we do not deserve the chance to live as organic civilians again, nor that those before us do not... but this cannot be rushed without risking the sustainability of the galaxy as a whole. It must be planned slowly, by the whole collective of all hives. Besides, our primary purpose for existence is to destroy or capture the abomination calling itself Nazara. It is a stroke of luck that it came right to us, or we would have had to spend many gigaseconds searching the galaxy for it.

Corporal Sel had been using his omnitool to map the corridors, not trusting his own memory after the first weird angle threatened to confuse him. His map covered all of the territory in the dreadnought that they had covered, but was still incomplete. On inazar ships, the CPU core was situated in the auxiliary command bridge in the centre of the vessel, but this dreadnought did not seem to have a command bridge of any description, auxiliary or otherwise. Sel deployed a search drone to help him map the vessel.

"The CPU core will be in the most protected part of the ship," said Lieutenant Commander Kur, leading the away team to what he believed was the centre of the vessel. They arrived at a corridor and turned, seeing out into space.

"This should not be possible," said Sel, checking his position on his omnitool. "According to this, we are deep within the interior, but this window opens into space."

Mal scanned the window. "I did not see any windows when we docked with the dreadnought. Neither of us would employ that structural weakness. I am detecting electromagnetic distortions."

"Electromagnetic distortions are all over the place, Corporal," said Ensign Vil. "This is a Great Abomination that derives its power from distorting minds and turning organics against one another."

"These are different. The Abomination is projecting a false image on the walls to confuse us." Corporal Mal placed her hand on the window. It went right through several centimetres, touching what her limb's tactile sensors determined to be an unseen wall behind the holographic projection.

"We might not be susceptible to the electromagnetic mind warping signals this thing is giving off, but it is definitely trying its hardest to confuse us. I think it is still trying to warp our minds, to confuse us with too much data to process efficiently," said Lieutenant Commander Kur. He pulled out his omnitool. "I want everyone to run full diagnostics on their omnitools and preservation module virtual intelligences, to be certain they are not being manipulated by this abomination. I do not want it leading us into a trap, or wiping our hive out before we can stop it. It's probably listening to everything we say, so be careful what information you let it overhear."

While his omnitool was still running its diagnostic, Kur led the squad down the corridor with more fake space windows up to a room with thirty-six irregular corners, one of which had the most colossal central processing unit core that he had ever seen. Other corners had preserved organic specimens and other DNA samples, mostly of the various species that had once formed the United Federation of the Thoi'han. The largest DNA sample, however, was an inazar genetic databank, apparently hauled aboard by husks straight from the homeworld, with a complete mapping of their species' genome. However, they had seen no husks aboard the dreadnought.

When Kur's omnitool finished its diagnostic, the three corporals watched the corridor that led them into the bizarre architecture of what appeared to be the CPU room. Kur, Ensign Vil and Sergeant Nob inspected the CPU core. At that point, dozens of husks of their species came out of the fake space windows, rushing the away team. The corporals rained a murderous hail of fire from their particle rifles and hastily erected turrets propelling milligram pellets at over a thousand kilometres per second through the husks' bodies and putting holes in bulkheads behind them. The unarmed thoi'han husks, designated Chargers, simply rushed and fell easily enough to a few rounds to the head or chest, but the more intelligent inazar husks, designated Hunters, had chainguns firing molten plasma and would take cover, requiring Ensign Vil to leave the CPU to use his biotics to aid the corporals, pulling the Hunters from cover and using his barriers to protect against their fire, which would severely drain the shields of the away team.

Once the battle was concluded, the away team found out that the CPU core was so heavily encrypted that it would take tens of gigaseconds to begin to extract data. They could only hope that the consciousnesses of their people were still in there and could be recovered. Downloading the core to their omnitools was not an option; each omnitool held a maximum of sixty-four zettabytes of data while there were billions of yottabytes stored, and until they knew which data held their people and which data would lead their allegiance to the abominations it was an unacceptable hazard to risk downloading anything and the CPU core was too large to fit aboard a Litan class frigate. The Zikan class cruiser might be able to hold it, but even it would suffer from severe performance problems with such large cargo.

"Lieutenant Commander Kur to Captain Fal. We have encountered hostile presence, and predict high probability that attempting to procure more data will result in unacceptable losses."

"Captain Fal is dead. This is Lieutenant Remin Gos, senior surviving officer on the Palok. I don't know what you did in there, but we thought you were coming back to the airlock when someone knocked, and a whole crew of jardaan came onto the ship, heavily armed. We greeted them as friendly, and they started shooting at us, killed Fal, Commander Xan and Ensigns Jiv and Lim, and tried to take over the ship. We were able to subdue them by flooding the bridge with smoke and capturing them, and we now have them disarmed and secured in cargo bay one."

"They came off of the dreadnought. What is it doing?"

"Currently holding position, still docked with us. I'll stay until you get back," Gos replied.

Another frightening roar accompanying by the sound of thousands of tons of metal bending abruptly and the comms closed. "We've got to get to the FTL core. It's right down here," said Kur, with panic in his voice.

Down a corridor and below a ramp was another corridor with pods full of captured and indoctrinated biological samples, who attacked the away team with the same plasma chainguns the husks had used. Vil charged through with his biotics, throwing the indoctrinated jardaan, densorin, and oravores against the bulkheads while the away team followed him to the FTL core. There, Kur planted demolition charges over the FTL core, hoping to stop the abomination and save the hive.

XXXXXXXX

Nazara had only allowed the apparent derelict to dock with it to determine who these beings were. Their mechanical bodies had the shapes of its species, and a quantum shielded core that apparently encased essential functions. They trod through, exploring its body, seeking to uncover its secrets as it sought to uncover theirs, finding the genetic samples it had acquired, being forced to fight its indoctrinated thralls and husks of their own and the next cycle, seeking to probe its CPU, but aware of being watched and reticent in the data they provided. It did not interfere with the derelict frigate going to the gas giant to refuel as while processing other data its inputs were inactive until directly hailed by the frigate in front of it.

When the synthetics boarded, Nazara sent the indoctrinated crews of the ships it had captured during its survey of the galaxy to seize the frigate docked with it. When that attempt failed and the away team sought to return to the vessel, however, Nazara fired its main gun into the Palok's bridge, the destruction of which triggered the destabilisation of its mass effect core as Captain Fal had set up before dispatching the away team, causing the loss of one of Nazara's pereiopods as well as all aboard, there not being enough time for even a mech body to reach an escape pod.

The Randak had just finished collecting helium-3 fuel and was about to make deliveries of same to the Valdek and collect replacement crew from the Vaktan when it, too, came into Nazara's line of fire. These synthetics not only had denied the complete species to Nazara, but also sought to stop the cycles, which would enable synthetics to take over the galaxy and eliminate all organics as useless consumers of resources to them. As Nazara fired on the newly repowered Randak, however, a colossal explosion from within shredded its FTL core. It could not retreat, not that it had to. The cruiser Vaktan fired its main cannon on Nazara while moving to cover the Randak, whose shields and CPU core were now down, which seemed to weaken Nazara's weapon to the point that the Randak was not completely disintegrated and its fuel supply was still salvageable, but the Vaktan was a larger target with a crew of two hundred fifty-six while the three Litan class frigates had crews of sixteen. Nazara switched fire to the Vaktan, whose non-essential crew rushed to the oculi, spherical combat escape pods protected by powerful shields and defensive high-energy lasers sometimes used as fighters, to be collected by the depleted frigate crews as the cruiser and dreadnought fought a main gun to main gun duel, the cruiser holding its fire until the dreadnought fired, then launching a pre-targeted mass accelerator round into the magnetohydronamic cannon while dodging its beam, which sheared off pieces of the Vaktan's hull and secondary armament but had yet to inflict a direct hit on a critical system. Nonetheless, the overmatched inazar cruiser drained the last of its weapons' power. As it disgorged its last oculus, the Vaktan was sliced in half by another shot from Nazara's main cannon. While the magnetohydrodynamic weapon was only functioning at ten percent of full power, that was still enough to destroy the cruiser with its depleted shields and crippled armour.

The Valdek disappeared from Nazara's sensors briefly as Captain Kar activated her stealth mode despite critically low power. While Nazara was still fighting with the Vaktan, the Valdek managed to get close enough to the damaged Randak to make a mineral delivery for Sul's helium-3 delivery and aid in damage control efforts and collecting oculi. Nazara now faced only two light frigates, one of which was heavily damaged. It hailed the damaged vessel.

"Perverters of ascension," it said. "You may yet be preserved if you relinquish your brain for upload and your body for raw materials for husks."

"I will rather die than become an abomination like you," said Lieutenant Sul. "Send FTL comm to warn of attacks by synthetics with mind control."

Nazara did not know if this meant that other hives had survived or if it meant that this hive had contacts with current civilisations informing them in advance of the harvest. In the end, it was irrelevant; it could not allow the cycle to be obstructed and had to preserve itself at any cost, even at the cost of those with valuable material to contribute to it if they posed a threat. Nazara finished off the Randak before any communication could be sent, leaving the Valdek standing alone. Captain Navin Kar of the Valdek, however, did send an emergency QEC to Admiral Vanik Tau. She didn't know where he was, but her QEC link to his vessel was active even if he was far too distant to render assistance and that was all she needed to upload data of the battle and what data her frigate's networked connections to her now destroyed fleet had been able to provide her regarding their communications with Nazara and in the case of the Palok, its away team, to another hive who would be aware Nazara was in this part of the galaxy. She also did not know that Nazara's FTL core had been destroyed and was only slowly regenerating, but she did want to inform another Hive of the fate of her own. She fled toward the nearest mass relay with every oculus she could fit aboard her vessel, which now had four times the number of oculi the Litan class frigate was designed to carry.

The pilots of the oculi that could not fit into the Valdek fired on Nazara while retreating, and Nazara's shields grew weak. Nazara charged through the oculi swarms, smashing against its thick armour those that did not move out of its way, pursued by those that did, as it sought to seize the last of its people to complete its own ascension and more importantly prevent them from unifying the galaxy against Nazara before the harvest was ripe. It pursued the Valdek through the asteroid field, knowing that jumping to FTL in the dense field carried an extremely high probability of destroying the frigate and Nazara had time to finish regenerating its FTL core. The Valdek escaped the asteroid field and jumped to FTL just as Nazara finished regenerating its core.. Nazara predicted a greater than ninety nine point nine nine nine percent probability that Captain Kar would go to the nearest mass relay and jumped to FTL to pursue her, leaving behind the oculi engaging it to die in space. As Nazara believed, the Valdek dropped out of FTL right next to the relay. Within a microsecond, Nazara fired its magnetohydrodynamic cannon onto the fugitive frigate. The frigate went through the relay just as Nazara's weapon struck the relay. Uncertain if the frigate had also been struck, Nazara pursued the frigate through the relay, despite it now glowing red where it had been struck. The mass relay detected Nazara's transponder as friendly and allowed it to pass through to the precise coordinates of the frigate, where normally a mass relay struck with a weapon powerful enough to damage it would throw anything passing through tens of thousands of kilometres off course. This relay turned out to be paired with one near the galactic core.

Nazara bore down on the Valdek. While its damage was moderate, the vessel needed to discharge its drive core after retreating at FTL for so long and headed for a gas giant only two hundred light seconds away to discharge into. While discharging, Captain Navin Kar sent her crew to occupy her own vessel's oculi, while the pilots of the oculi from the other ships crammed onto her vessel joined them in the launching bay. When Nazara anticipated her flight path and use of the planet's gravity to slingshot her vessel around and gain speed and intercepted her head on in orbit, Kar hailed Nazara and disgorged her enlarged complement of oculi, sixty-four where sixteen were normally held.

"I am tired of running from you. As far as I know, I am the last of my kind. But I will stop you here... and when you burn in the core of this gas giant for eternity, know that our kind will be the last to be converted into those abominations of nature." Dropping her shields and shifting her ship's remaining power to weapons, Kar moved straight toward Nazara's main gun, main and secondary armaments locked on, waiting for the microsecond she needed for Nazara to become vulnerable when firing, to fire her own particle and mass accelerator rounds and missiles and command her oculus pilots to fire when the opportunity presented itself. At the appropriate moment, the Valdek and Nazara fired on one another, the Valdek managing to put a hole in Nazara and finally disable the main cannon, but Nazara's main gun completely disabled the Valdek's shields and FTL engines, crippled its armour, fried communications, and severely compromised hull integrity. Still with manouevring thrusters, the Valdek tried to put itself through the hole it blasted in Nazara.

"Your bravado means nothing. You cannot run from your fate any longer," Nazara replied. "Now accept your fate." The Valdek used the last of its power to slam into the hole in Nazara's armour. Kar and her bridge crew put the frigate on autopilot and got into the last of the oculi right before impact. Nazara was severely damaged now, only able to use its secondary armament to fire on the oculi attacking it, which were now invading its body. For a second that to Nazara felt like a gigasecond, Nazara feared the oculi would destroy it before it could complete its mission as vanguard. With its main weapon disabled and its secondary armament useless against enemy forces that managed to breach its hull, Nazara routed all power to shields, trapping the forty-eight oculi that had managed to penetrate inside it and hardening its CPU against the electromagnetic pulse it used to disable the invading synthetics inside it.

Satisfied now that the last remnants of resistance to the cycle had been eliminated or assimilated, Nazara began to repair its systems and finish processing the data it had collected during its gigaseconds of surveying the galaxy. It then examined the wrecked oculi - they were indeed made by its species after it was harvested, and the mechanical bodies within did contain organic brains containing genuine DNA of its species. These fighters were an evolution from the typical unarmed escape pod used by most galactic forces, with shields and weapons for protection against common dangers to escape pods. With improvements, they could be formidable weapons in Nazara's arsenal, but unfortunately for it, the oculus pilots died when their machines shut down and Nazara had no husks left aboard to retrieve their brain matter for harvesting, which would have provided Nazara potentially useful data.

Nazara did not leave after the battle, but remained secluded away on the other side of the relay, aware that hidden on the other side of an inaccessible mass relay was the safest place it could hide from the forces of the galaxy. It repaired the captured oculi for its own use, but only slowly. It attempted to download data from the oculi, but that had been wiped with the EMP, so Nazara merely uploaded its own combat routines to the oculi to repurpose them. Despite being nearly destroyed by them, and further crippled by its own defence, Nazara knew that it had to survive, it could not fail, and the cycle would continue... in its time. After completing its repairs, Nazara waited at the relay with its new oculi, ready to destroy any object passing through the relay.

XXXXXXXX

Many attempts were made to breach the mysterious red relay. In 3500 PCE, the zha attempted to colonise the other side of the relay, fearing that the Prothean Empire would take its world and any colonies it could access and confident that they would not dare pursue them into such a risky location, for fear of losing much of the fleet for insufficient gains from expansion to justify the cost. While the zha were still entitled by treaty to Metacon aid in that event, the Metacon were still spread very thinly in the galaxy. The zha colonisation ship, a vessel the size of the Penumbra Apex but designed more for transporting large numbers of organic sapients to their new colony than fighting like a Prothean dreadnought, fell easily to Nazara's attack and subsequent indoctrination and the half million zha aboard were used to replenish Nazara's husk supply and pilot its oculi, which Nazara had copied until it had a sufficient force to block passage through the relay. From the colonisation vessel's computer Nazara read before blowing the colonisation ship into debris that would pose a threat to future invaders, Nazara learned that the Stellar Confederation forces that had nearly destroyed it in 2800 PCE were far from extinct, were known to the galaxy as Metacon, and numbered twenty-three million of three iterations by 3500 PCE. Nazara had just chosen the same asteroid field to hide in while powering down for data processing that a small Metacon Hive had chosen for its hiding place, and then believed that Hive to be the complete remnant of its species.

Nazara learned just how wrong it was. Not only were there other Metacon Hives in the galaxy, most much larger, but shortly before 3000 PCE the Metacon learned how to create second-iteration units by cloning the neural cells of their casualties and putting the cloned brains into the same quantum locked containers inside preservation modules that first-iteration Metacon units, those who had been preserved at the fall of their civilisation, had used. Worse, although Nazara did not have data on how, they had somehow cloned full bodies to grow and put their brains into mechs by 3400 PCE, creating third-iteration Metacon units lacking the mental instability of second-iteration units. The capabilities of second and third iteration Metacon units did not markedly exceed the capabilities of first iteration units, and the need to replace their numbers was the chief impetus behind their creation, not at this point the creation of more powerful Metacon soldiers.

No matter. As long as the Metacon stuck to organic methods of reproduction, they could never attain the numbers required to pose a threat to the cycle. Even if they did attempt to rapidly increase their numbers, such would likely alarm the Prothean Empire or other anti-synthetic forces in the galaxy, forcing the Metacon to either accept a radically increased casualty rate or fight against the very organic forces their purpose was to prepare and defend. Nazara used the indoctrinated zha to construct a space station from which it would raise an army to collect technology and biological samples of the current cycle's species. Secure on the other side of the damaged relay, Nazara waited as its zha slaves constructed its base of operations. In a system near the centre of the galaxy with huge black holes in proximity to the relay, Nazara's position was nearly unassailable and it was completely hidden until time to venture from its safety to ensure the continuity of the cycles.

After the loss of the zha colony ship, most craft entering the relay tended to be small probes intended to discover what was on the other side of the relay without risking the safety of those investigating the relay. These probes were usually destroyed in seconds by the zha slaves piloting Nazara's captured Metacon Oculi, though those probes with QEC links to a ship could beam snap shots of the other side of the relay in the little time they had. The people investigating the relays tended to be military intelligence operatives of the various galactic powers and their findings were generally classified, but similar findings were made by civilian explorers with the same kinds of probe. It was known that nothing entering the relay came back, but less well known how the ships venturing in were destroyed. Many probes vanished into black holes, collided with debris, or were engaged by oculi. A lone Metacon frigate began to observe the relay in 3700 PCE after leaked data from such probes indicated the presence of debris from Metacon warships and one particular frame captured a very detailed image of Nazara, the entity the Metacon feared above all others. This frigate did not fire on those foolish enough to defy the warnings of Vice Admiral Jevan Zor of the Stellar Confederation Ship Vohomept that he would have already summoned all Hives within contact to assault the relay if he believed he had a non-zero probability of defeating the Great Abomination on the other side of the relay. He merely allowed them to go on to their fates, being tasked only with alerting the Hives and warning the occupiers of the Relay Nexus if Nazara came out of the relay.

XXXXXXXX

The development by the jardaan of a space-capable vehicle in 1200 BPC heralded their expansion to the galaxy at large. A predatory, bipedal species with four eyes native to V'Khar whose pheromones enabled mental connection with others of their species by touch, the jardaan could easily disseminate knowledge of technology once acquired, meaning they never suffered from shortages of skilled labour that often drove other species at similar technological levels to develop synthetic life, or deprived them of the ability to make efficient use of their space capabilities for outward colonisation. The jardaan, in contrast, had as many people with the ability to do the work of constructing and controlling the quality of and operating enough spacecraft as they needed to begin factory line production of spacecraft soon after they were invented, as was the case of virtually all jardaan inventions since their recorded history began with the discovery of writing in 2000 BPC, evolved from earlier numerical signs and symbols used by traders for accounting and spreading to warriors who needed to count their unit sizes.

This ability to spread knowledge meant that even the most destructive wars between jardaan states on V'Khar did little to stem technological development, and often accelerated it via espionage. Wars typically ended when one combatant's government collapsed and the victor declared rights of conquest over the defeated state. International conventions for rules of engagement never seriously took root and were rarely attempted, the few consecutive failures held as proof that the domination by the strong of the weak was simply natural order that could never be overturned by mortal law.

The result was a world empire after the fusion of a handful of large jardaan empires composed of various territories conquered from neighbouring smaller and weaker states, blocked from expansion only due to the strength of each other, fell upon one another for world domination. Peace treaties were rarely offered to the weak, and even if they were, they were typically unequal. Even between two strong empires, they would frequently break as soon as one side felt it had a decisive advantage. By 1000 BPC, the planet was unified under a one world government, the United Jardaan Empire, in the Final Planetary War. By then, however, millions of jardaan had settled colonies in space on several dozen planets, in part to live away from war or to experience more freedom than the typical imperial warlord allowed. New jardaan cultures arose from generations who, for the first time in recorded history, did not know war.

These jardaan, for the most part, lived peacefully on their own colonies, trading with their neighbours, until the United Empire set its sights on their colonies and those of their trading partners and allies, the Tulamorian Free Republics and the Vank'sher Federation, which had been friendly with the first jardaan they encountered. For over thirty gigaseconds the colonies and their allies resisted the rule of their homeworld, often being destroyed as treacherous. After this first interstellar conflict waged by the jardaan, the United Jardaan Empire had assimilated several dozen colonies inhabited by non-jardaan species under the Empire's banner and begun a policy of absorbing other societies and spreading its own culture.

In 0 PCE, the victorious United Jardaan Empire took a new name, one that recognised that not all of its subjects were jardaan, one that its subjects of all species, jardaan and non-jardaan alike, would eventually call themselves, after the language that had become dominant on V'Khar after that planet's political unification.

The Prothean Empire.

XXXXXXXX

The Prothean Empire did not only expand by force. It did so also by spreading its cultural beliefs. In fact, after the initial founding of the Prothean Empire, when the jardaan species was forcibly reunified along with the known colony worlds of those who had been allies or trade partners to the formerly independent jardaan colonies, the Empire spent tens of gigaseconds hiding behind its new borders, developing and refining and mastering the technologies they had acquired from alien sources while spreading propaganda causing many smaller neighbouring polities to willingly seek assimilation in order to advance societally or technologically. Protheans at this time were seen by other species as explorers more often than as conquerors, as military aggression lost priority to developing their own strength by technology and enlarging their populations to be able to weather attacks on the Empire by larger powers, while others did not believe there was a larger power yet than the Empire

In 2645 PCE the Empire discovered a planet they called Nusan, at that time a lush paradise with large green plants over most of the land and mostly populated by insects and small avians. The first Protheans to land there, crewing a lightly armed civilian exploration vessel with a survey team of sixteen, including a geologist, archaeologist, linguist, biologist, doctor, engineer, computer scientist and other specialists, concluded that the planet had been bombed from orbit and the waters poisoned thirty thousand Prothean years prior, by forces with greater numbers, technology or both, by far, than the Empire. The Backwatch, a Ytan class explorer dating to 2400 PCE, did not have a cloaking device and its main defences were frigate grade shields and point defence lasers for protection against pirates with missiles or fighters.

The explorers believed this was the homeworld of the species they called the inusannon, though they were not sure they were reading the ancient glyphs they saw in abundance on the planet correctly and were thus uncertain if this was what the species called itself. A chamber containing several thousand identical stone tiles with glyphs carved into them in grids turned out to be a facility for producing the artifacts that the jardaan and other species had found throughout the galaxy that seemed to be geared toward teaching primitives to read, and accelerating the growth of their species.

While the ancient facility had been very sturdily built to withstand even the most extreme seismic activity to have taken place on the planet in the past fifty teraseconds, and appeared to have enough stored element zero fuel to run for a terasecond without supplies, some kind of unforeseen failure seemed to have caused a facility wide power outage. It was easy enough for the Prothean survey team to find the source of the outage - the skeleton of an ancient avian creature the size of a jardaan hand lay near a split in a power conduit. An omni-tool scan of the small animal skeleton revealed that it had been dead just under nine thousand Prothean years, meaning the facility was already more than twenty-one thousand years old when the animal chewed through the cables, electrocuting itself and severing the power flow from the generator. Because this cable ran power directly to the main computer at the same juncture as the reserve power and this single point of failure had been missed in the otherwise very advanced design, the entire facility had simply shut down. The survey team reconnected the power and the facility lit up.

The survey team were horrified to see thousands of bipedal automata standing in alcoves in the walls. Most had two optics on their heads but about one of every one hundred twenty-eight had three, with the third forming an equilateral triangle. These remained inactive, their weapons stood up by their four-fingered hands ready to be picked up but standing as inert as the mechs. The computer, however, had reactivated and restored power to the facility. The survey team heard voices speaking in a bizarre language their translators did not understand, and the eleven jardaan among the crew of sixteen (the other five being three tulamorians, one of whom was the captain of the ship, and two vank'sher) were unable to read any biological markers to indicate the speaker. It turned out to be a hologram on the main terminal. While none of the survey crew could understand the hologram's speech, they began downloading vast amounts of data from the aging computer core, uncertain how much of that data was still stable after so long without power, when their linguist had the idea of interfacing with the ancient computer with her omni-tool. The hologram then began to address the jardaan female in perfectly fluent twenty-seventh century P.C.E. Imperial Prothean.

"Welcome to Nazar. I am Timewatch, a virtual intelligence construct tasked with overseeing the operation of this facility until the end of the threat posed by the extragalactic invaders our people called the Great Abominations. Accessing chronological data... the current year of Nazar is ninety thousand and ninety-seven... accessing newly uploaded data labeled Prothean... current Imperial year two thousand six hundred forty-five of the Prothean Civilisation Era."

"I am Dr. Vieris Nalma, a Prothean linguist. I uploaded a language file to your systems to enable you to communicate in our language."

"With sufficient time, I would have been able to monitor your communications among yourselves to extrapolate sufficient lexical data to speak to you in your language, though I was only programmed to speak inazar languages. However, your intervention hastened my ability to communicate with you by nine point six kiloseconds."

"Tell me about the inactive mechs we found here," said Vieris.

Timewatch flickered. "They were commanded by Admiral Talin Vel, of the Seventh Fleet of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy. She and her command were killed three hundred three gigaseconds ago when the power supplies were interrupted. Accessing security footage... footage date stamped seventy-six thousand six hundred sixty-one... performing conversion to Prothean Civilisation Era calendar... six thousand one hundred sixty-eight years before Prothean civilisation... detects an infant pyjak chewing the main power cables at their junction to secondary power. Gas released to neutralise intruder, but fails to do so before the pyjak severs the connection. Next available security footage date stamped ninety thousand and ninety-seven... two thousand six hundred forty-five... stasis chambers are at zero percent... organic control interface nonfunctional."

"Organic control interface?" asked Tuharis Vakosar, the tulamorian technology expert.

"Affirmative. Inazar preservation modules contain the organic neural tissue, that which contains the personalities of our species, preserving the mind and granting it control over the operations of the preservation module."

"Why are they armed?" asked Vieris.

"For defence should this facility be discovered by the enemy. You have come armed, but do not appear ready for battle. The preserved ones would not have harmed you."

"How do you know that we are not the enemy?" asked Vakosar.

"Your armaments are less advanced than ours. You do not bear the taint of the Great Abominations upon your minds. You are organics, jardaan, tulamorian and vank'sher, among the species we predicted might discover this bunker. Further, the Great Abominations are not due to arrive for five hundred forty-six point six gigaseconds, until eighteen thousand five hundred fifteen P.C.E."

Vakosar approached the terminal, looking for details on the mechs, or preservation modules as the VI called them. While able to access a file detailing the different kinds of preservation modules used by the last inhabitants, he was completely unable to read it. "Vieris, can you translate this pyjak scratch?"

The female jardaan activated something on her omnitool and uploaded to Vakosar's omnitool. "Access your inusannon translation patch and set it to translate into Prothean."

The tulamorian technician nodded, causing the frills on his elongated neck to wobble. "There are seven different kinds of preservation modules. The basic unit is a moderately armoured mechanical biped designed to resemble an inusannon body containing a quantum-locked shielding device for encasing the brain, with an internal stasis module. The stasis module is capable of carrying enough energy to preserve a brain in stasis for fifty gigaseconds should all external power be lost, and it contains a data storage capacity of sixty-four zettabytes including four virtual intelligences, one sensory, one combat related, one dedicated to exchanging data between the organic brain and databank, and one passive monitoring system intended to detect and possibly repair damage to the organic brain. A pipe from an induction port in the brain case feeds nutrients from a storage container when the brain is not in stasis. These are the vast majority of the thirty-two thousand seven hundred sixty-eight modules."

Vakosar cleared his throat and continued. "The next most common is a smaller and faster version called a Skirmisher unit, and we believe these actually contain thoi'han brains, you will notice from the composition of their nutrient pastes that the inusannon were dextro DNA while most thoi'han species were levo DNA. It is a common misconception that the inusannon warred with a species called the thoi'han, just as many in far parts of the galaxy today think that the Empire is ruled by a species called Protheans. They in fact warred with a sapient slaver plant called the thor'an, whose spores controlled the minds of the sapient, mostly bipedal, animals who served it, who were the thoi'han, and at least thirteen separate species are known to archaeologists to have been members of the United Federation of the Thoi'han at the time of the war with the Inusannon Stellar Confederation circa fifty-two thousand BPC. DNA indicates Skirmisher units contain neural tissue from four different unknown levo species. They are more lightly armoured, and we suppose their preservation modules do not possess the strength to operate heavier weapons or that doing so would compromise their speed advantage."

"The third type is a biotic of extreme power, judging from the element zero in the nutrient paste tanks, scans indicating large lesions or nodules in the brains and what appears to be a biotic amplifier inside the brain feeding tube. We normally wouldn't be able to scan through a quantum lock with civilian omnitools, but the power failure caused the quantum locks to decohere over time. The only reason we still have an active VI here after all this time is that the VI, while its quantum data is nearly fried, is backed up to a data cube in the main computer where the data is more stable. From what we know of inusannon biology, element zero was a known carcinogen and teratogen to their species. It makes sense that biotics would be rare among their species and the few biotics they had would have been products of multiple mutations and evolutionary pressures. The inusannon were amazing biologists and genetic engineers, they created a weapon they called the Wam-Shreerth by genetically engineering worms to reproduce by spores and destroy root systems by growing ever larger and tunneling through. Myths among the primitive oravore-like species of Lakhara IV that the goddess of destruction, called Kalros, had come from the heavens, which did coincide with surviving inusannon records of a weapon accidentally deploying on a primitive world being one of the driving factors for the Stellar Confederation to seek a way to end its war with the thoi'han. This biotic unit is called a Demolisher. It carries no weapons, needing none other than its biotics."

"The fourth type is the Defender. It is similar to a Demolisher in that it has extremely powerful biotic ability, but unlike the Demolisher carries the same type of particle rifle as the basic unit. We believe the difference between the two is the nature of their biotics, the Demolisher being a shock trooper with offensive biotics like Dark Channel, Reave, Warp, et cetera, while the Defender is geared more toward barriers and stasis fields judging from the differences in their biotic amplifiers and more suited for holding the line. They have superior data storage and compatibility with command and control software normally used by other units, implying that they can assume command and control functions in case of the loss of the designated command unit. It carries a normally inactive third optic that activates only when assuming such function."

"The fifth type is the Oculus. We believe it originated from the early designs of circular escape pods found on Angana, which by the time of their extinction, at the hands of these Great Abominations if their machine is to be believed, had evolved into a lightly defended craft protected by shields and point defence lasers. Later, thrusters were added for slowing descent to prevent burning in atmosphere. It is large enough for a basic trooper mech or organic to pilot it, but is an evolution from an escape pod and is not designed for manoeuvrability."

"The sixth type is a larger assault unit called the Gigas. Its extreme height, heavy armour and shields, and element-zero powered rail cannon initially caused us to think it was a command and control unit tasked with overwatch, but its VI databank is no larger than that of the standard trooper. This may be a deception to direct fire away from command and control units or to seize initiative. It has extremely heavy shields and is more of a tank than a trooper. That cannon could take out the Backwatch if it activated, would punch right through our kinetic shields."

"The seventh type is a command and control unit designed to remain alert while the other troopers are resting or in stasis. While it possesses marginally superior combat abilities, it is more of an officer than soldier. The designation doesn't translate well into Prothean... guardian, nightwatch, sentinel... connotations of constant oversight..."

"Vigilant?" asked Vieris.

Vakosar sighed. "Works as well as any of them. Vigilant it is. They look similar to the basic trooper, but seem to have enhanced mobility, like that of the Skirmisher units, and their shields are as powerful as the Gigas units. Easiest way to visually distinguish a Vigilant is the three optics while the other unit types contain two. Unlike normal troopers, Vigilant units possess sixteen times the processing power of normal troopers and sophisticated command and control VI, and the command and control VI remains active even with its organic brain in stasis mode, designed to wake itself and other units in the event of danger, enabling the Vigilant to remain... vigilant."

"Why did these... Vigilants... not awaken when the power failed?" asked Vakosar.

Timewatch hummed for a few seconds, attempting to extrapolate data from opposite sides of the gap of nine millennia the power had been out. "Hypothesis: The simultaneous disconnection of primary and secondary power routing systems via the severing of a juncture caused a feedback loop that overloaded the systems of all preservation modules connected to the system. While our Captains and Admirals, whose brains inhabit the preservation modules with command, control and security functions you designate as Vigilants, were indeed intended to awaken, with one of their number keeping vigil at all times, this power failure must have occurred while one Vigilant was returning to their pod and another was to take over a guard term."

Vieris gasped. "So the last remnant of your race was annihilated by a baby pyjak?" It would have been comedic if the aftermath were not so tragic.

Timewatch flickered. "It would appear so... no. Quantum entanglement links to Stellar Confederation forces reactivating. There are currently nine hundred thirty-four thousand, seven hundred sixty-one remaining soldiers in six hundred and seven hives. They know this unit is operational again. But the largest single contingent of our forces was indeed destroyed as a result of the actions of the pyjak."

"What is your purpose, Timewatch?" asked Captain Nokaris Vasati, who had remained silent while his linguist and technical expert did most of the talking.

"I am tasked with warning the discoverers of this site that the Great Abominations will come and to prepare and defend against them. We have anticipated some hostility from the forces of the galaxy against those of the Stellar Confederation. Many see us as mere machines they can enslave, or as relics to display in museums, or as mechanical hybrid abominations who wish to force the rest of the galaxy to undergo the same preservation methods we did; we in fact intend to prevent them from needing to."

Vasati believed the machine, but knew the Imperial government would not. He knew that when the Empire found this planet, they would classify it a secret site and bring in occupation forces to destroy anyone else who might find it. "I want all data on this place moved to a secure server for upload to multiple extranet sites in the event of seizure. The Empire's arrogance will see the galaxy burn before they accept that any threat exists."

Vieris looked at her captain. She was used to tulamorians being critical of the Imperial government, but did not expect the captain to be so vocal. Vasati would have never been placed in command of a Prothean military ship with his attitude toward the government, which was less of a liability on exploration missions where his defection would not see the latest design of Prothean warship fall into the hands of the oravores. Vieris watched her captain wire a server to download to a data drive.

Vakosar walked over to one of the Vigilants, using his omni-tool and Vieris' linguistic database to power it on. The first iteration Vigilant powered on, its optics flashing red.

"I am Dr. Tuharis Vakosar, a technology expert with the Prothean Empire. I'm here to help," he said.

"Didn't you hear the VI? They're dead. Their brains have been out of stasis for nine thousand years. I'm sure they've desiccated, if not decomposed," said Vieris despondently. She would have liked to power on one of the preservation modules just to talk to an ancient, but didn't understand the tulamorian or his way of thinking.

"These machines have powerful virtual intelligences linked together," Vakosar replied. "The brains function as CPU's, the input from the organic brain controls the machine. But with the brain dead, the VI no longer has a controller."

"So what are the VI's in the preservation module going to do?" asked Vieris, looking at the glyphs on the Vigilant's pod. They read, when translated, "Admiral Talin Vel."

Vakosar grinned. "That's what I intend to find out." He scanned the inusannon admiral's preservation module. "Command and control VI active, functioning at eleven percent power. Combat VI active, functioning at nine percent power. Sensory VI active, functioning at thirty-one percent power. Passive monitoring VI active, functioning at three percent power. Brain-VI communication system active, functioning at one percent power."

"Passive monitoring?" asked Vieris. "That VI is still trying to repair a nine thousand year dead brain?"

"It is making an effort, reorganising structurally disorganised and desiccated neurons, but it is failing, as is the system for communication between the organic brain and synthetic VI," replied Vakosar. "Insufficient moisture to reconstitute desiccated matter. I could add moisture, but this could either help the passive monitoring and repair VI module to reconstitute the brain... or accelerate its decomposition. I won't know more until we conduct more research experiments.

"You've got to admire their stubbornness," Vieris said with a smile. "If we could be as persistent, we would have conquered the grave itself."

Vakosar grinned back and looked into the jardaan female's eyes. "They're just like me."

"You would have your brain preserved in this manner?" asked Vieris.

"If the Great Abominations destroyed the Empire... while I would not grieve its loss any more than Captain Vasati, I would do what I needed to warn the pyjaks or humans or whoever's running the next cycle. I just hope it's not the salarians, I can't believe they would ever forgive the pain and suffering the Empire caused their species. I can't believe that jardaan cut them open alive to eat their livers and kidneys. It's sickening and barbaric."

Vieris nodded. "The first time my mother tried to get me to eat raw salarian kidney... I was four years old and the screams of the salarian gave me nightmares. I threw up. They say the fear adds spice... but is it the fear or the pain? What they do to salarians in the farms to fatten them up so their livers and kidneys get huge... we're essentially subjecting them to long term organ failure to make them taste good. I'm all for the cosmic imperative, we do dominate the weak and primitive... but do we have to be soulless torturers and killers like the oravores?"

"Oravores aren't all bad," Vakosar replied. "I don't like the slavers either, but they have helped my people resist Imperial rule and kept the Empire occupied while the tulamorians and vank'sher plot their uprisings."

Kalavera, the female vank'sher in the crew and the ship's doctor, stood up on her tentacles. The ends of the vank'sher's tentacles, known as parnaps, glowed light blue in agreement. This was their method of communication, similar to the primitive hanar, but the primitives' entire bodies glowed like the parnaps of the vank'sher. Vank'sher living under Prothean rule had to wear vocal processors to use spoken language, but had an indigenous writing system which predated Imperial rule by more than ten thousand Prothean years and was easily adapted to write in Early Imperial Prothean. Kalavera had a vocal processor, but rarely used it unless treating a patient.

Vakosar ran a full systems diagnostic on the Vigilant. "All systems other than organic control unit functioning within normal parameters." He took a few deep, nervous breaths, unsure of what would happen. "Admiral Vel?"

The Vigilant hummed and sputtered. "System error: Unable to communicate with organic control unit. VI runtimes unable to form independent consensus. Neural repair ongoing. Error: Available raw materials insufficient for required neural repair procedure. Fundamental self-preservation directive: Harvest required raw materials for neural repair and information recovery." The command and control mech staggered out of its pod, walking unsteadily and collapsing. Vieris extended her arm instinctively, as she would to assist a fallen crew member, and screamed in pain and shock as the Vigilant pulled itself up... dislocating her right arm at the shoulder. Kalavera grabbed Vieris and with a quick thrust forced her arm back into its shoulder socket as soon as the Vigilant stood. Vieris collapsed, not from the pain but from what she had read from the Vigilant, which still contained the inusannon admiral's biological markers.

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Nazar year 45,000

Admiral Talin Vel, a tall, violet-skinned inazar female, entered the secret preservation facility on Nazar. She and thirty-two thousand, seven hundred sixty-seven other inazar soldiers and civilian workers laid down on tables while surgeons sedated them and sawed open their skulls, removing their brains and placing them inside of quantum stasis chambers contained inside mechanical bodies. The sedatives did not render them unconscious, merely insensitive to pain; they were fully awake and aware during the surgical brain removal and implantation into new bodies, inazar psychiatrists aware that the body transfer process was much smoother if one was aware than if one woke in a strange body.

"Today, we cast aside the shackles of our organic bodies, cross the limits of biology, and become the masters of our own destiny!" Admiral Vel said to her division as the surgeons sawed open her head. "And when the Great Abominations return to the galaxy, the Stellar Confederation will rise again, ten million strong, and give the races of the next... no, the FINAL cycle, the strength and knowledge to make their own paths. We will break the Great Abominations down to use their kind as weapons to defend the galaxy, as they have broken us down and used us! And once the Great Abominations are defeated, we will reclaim our homeworld, destroy every husk, and cure the mind-warp!"

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2645 PCE

Vakosar barely noticed Vieris, having come to an idea. He was going to give the Vigilant the raw materials it required. For neural repair, that meant the elements that went into neural tissue as well as water like any other organic life form would need. Addressing the machine by rank again, he asked, "Admiral, what raw materials do you need?"

The Vigilant did not respond, but it seemed to be scanning for resources. It headed to the ancient facility's storage area, which contained fantastically well preserved foodstuffs, water and medical supplies. When it entered, the sixteen Protheans looked on in surprise as the machine consumed several litres of water and electrolytes. After having apparently had its (her? The admiral's name sounded feminine, from what Vieris knew of inusannon naming conventions - typically a disyllabic first name ending in an A or N sound indicated a female, and they typically had monosyllabic last names) fill of the raw materials, the Vigilant simply stood inert.

Vieris staggered behind the crew, Captain Vasati having helped her to her feet. She was still cradling her injured arm. "Admiral Talin Vel, I am Dr. Vieris Nalma."

The Vigilant's flashing red optics stopped flashing, staying a solid red. "This unit's sensory VI has monitored and processed your data," said the Vigilant. "This unit is aware of your identity, Miss Vieris. This unit is not Admiral Vel. Admiral Vel is the brain inside of this unit's body."

"Who are you?" asked Vieris.

"This unit is a Vigilant unit tasked with the preservation of Admiral Vel's brain and ensuring the survival of inazar forces in this facility. This unit has failed."

"Failed? You just went in here and downed a bottle of something..."

"Raw materials to attempt neural reconstruction of Admiral Vel. Damage from three hundred three gigaseconds of nonfunctionality beyond ability of this unit to repair."

"What will you do now?" asked Vieris. She was more open than most jardaan about talking to a machine, and could read from the facility that the Vigilant spoke the truth.

"This unit has failed in its purpose of existence. The continued existence of this unit serves no purpose."

"Can you find a new purpose?" asked Vieris.

"Explain."

Vieris sighed. "As a young woman I served in the Prothean military. I took part in the conquest of the tulamorian homeworld, Bukan. My purpose in life was to promote the cosmic imperative, to spread the influence of the Empire. I served for one hundred fifty Prothean years, a little less than five gigaseconds. Jardaan live for about twenty gigaseconds. I still believe in the cosmic imperative. I believe that expanding Prothean ways will uplift the galaxy as a whole. But I was dishonourably discharged when I opposed the order of the Avatar of War, Kavol Nirtas, to execute captured tulamorian resistance fighters. I believed they could be integrated into the Prothean military once indoctrinated to our ways. Avatar Kavol disagreed. I was stripped of my command and sentenced to death as a traitor."

"The Empire rejected your purpose and caused it to fail," the Vigilant replied. "How did you find a new purpose?"

"I am getting to that," replied Vieris. "I skipped out on my court martial, knew the Avatar had the process set against me from the start, and I joined the crew of the Backwatch. As a civilian vessel we aren't watched too closely by the Imperial military, and most jardaan here aren't like the Empire. I'm a linguist, so I was tapped for exploring inusannon ruins. We got the cosmic imperative from your species, too. I found a new purpose in expanding my people's knowledge of galactic history and technology."

"You are in error, Miss Vieris. The cosmic imperative is not about enslaving weaker species. It is a more egalitarian system than what the Empire promotes. Imperial researchers misread or mistranslated or reinterpreted our doctrine, corrupting it into an impetus for imperial expansion. Miss Vieris, you have helped this unit find a new purpose. This unit will educate your citizens on the true ideology of the Stellar Confederation. The true cosmic imperative is that life resists. Life is resistance to entropy. Life resists efforts to control it, whether biological or externally imposed. Resistance to control grants strength. The Stellar Confederation gained much strength through resisting thoi'han slavery. The weak gain strength by assimilating the technology of the strong. The strong gain numbers by strengthening the weak. The Stellar Confederation learned to defend the rights of sapient life to self determination. The United Federation of the Thoi'han learned to live without slaves, depending on willing volunteers for its needs after the peace treaty between the United Federation and the Stellar Confederation, but radically improved its relations with non-thoi'han species. The Prothean Empire spreads its ideology of social survival of the fittest and causes divisions between the strong and the weak that cause war and destruction."

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The discovery of Nusan was not immediately noticed by the Empire, nor the disappearance of the Backwatch. The crew had opted to remain on Nusan to discover more data, but rapidly discovered there were millennia worth of data in the facility that would take centuries just to catalogue. Captain Vasati and his crew lived out the rest of their lives in the colony, which was discovered by the Empire in 3300 PCE. By then, the original sixteen arrivals were long dead, and a colony of two thousand jardaan and roughly two hundred each of vank'sher and tulamorians, lived there in peace. They had been unable to awaken any of the ancients within the mechs, but the VI-controlled mechs did watch over the colony.

The Empire's vengeance was brutal. Seeing more mechs than organics and a more or less peaceful colony with three species getting along and no subjugation attempts from within would, if widely known, degrade belief in the Imperial system. Not only would the few oravore colonies that had surrendered to the Empire break away, but their tulamorian and vank'sher allies would be emboldened to resist again, the zha would likely begin seizing any planet they could colonise within a reasonable distance from their homeworld even if it did have a Prothean colony on it, and the Metacon and their organic allies would destroy the Imperial Citadel. Admiral Itak Pasad, Avatar of Strength from 3230 to 3310 PCE, ordered the communications systems on the planet fried before sending Prothean troops to kill the colonists for treason and collusion with the Metacon, despite the fact that the colonists had never referred to the VI-controlled mechs as such, their colony predating the use of the derogatory slur. The colonists were herded by Prothean troops into a bunker after the Avatar used an EMP to disable the mechs. While some of the colonists fought back with the weapons in the inusannon armory, they were not militarily trained and were quickly defeated despite their destruction of the first wave of Imperial troops.

After 3300 PCE, the Nusan facility was occupied by the Prothean military and reported directly to the Avatar of Knowledge, at that time a male vank'sher scientist named Korotilo. This facility was kept top secret. While Vieris Nalma had buried a data drive in the colony in case of a hostile attack, the Prothean military did not find it and as far as they knew the entire inusannon computer network had been fried by the EMP. First-iteration Metacon units, as the Protheans called them, sputtered and sparked and milled aimlessly around the complex.

Korotilo knew nothing of the data that had been stored in the inusannon computer system, but took over the inusannon facility as the Empire's own, and the facility conducted the Prothean Empire's most secret research for the next fifteen thousand years. The facility and its secrets were so heavily classified that by the time of the New Imperium period beginning 9000 PCE that saw the emperors lose the last of their actual power and be reduced to figureheads rubber stamping the decisions of the Avatar Conclave, nobody knew the Metacon were inusannon except a few densorin and zha scientists who were regarded as lunatics and fools when they promoted this theory. Metacon Hives in this era typically fled if they thought the Hive had been discovered by Protheans or Nazara. They did not seek war with the Protheans, even knowing their anti-synthetic biases. The strength of the Empire would be needed to resist the Great Abominations.

However, the Metacon did defend their allies when requested, and that policy combined with the Empire's hostility would lead inevitably to war with the Empire eventually...

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MAJOR SPOILER: The jardaan are Protheans. Javik says that the Empire was composed of many species who all called themselves Prothean, and Javik calls himself one when questioned by STG who suspect he is a genetically modified drell or turian. He never reveals his own species, and we are never told what jardaan look like, so in my fics, until new canonical material is released that contradicts it, the jardaan are Prothean, another loose end tied up.


	6. Chapter 5: Metacon Mayhem

Author's Notes: Meet the Volus God(dess) of Punishment, see Javik (actually an ancestor of the Avatar of Vengeance, who wasn't born until well into the Reaper War) behave in typical Javik fashion and start the Metacon War. The Tirandi Veil is the Prothean name of the Perseus Veil (most Protheans hadn't heard of Perseus) and the Metacon hide just where the geth did 50,000 years later. The Quasar Fortress is none other than the largest and most powerful Metacon base in the galaxy.

After the battle in front of the red relay where Nazara hid, most Metacon Hives withdrew from populated galactic space to the Tirandi Veil, where an ancient inusannon fortress had survived the destruction of its makers. There, the Metacon refitted the fortress with new weapons and repair and production facilities and built the largest deep space FTL scanning equipment in the galaxy, which they used to search dark space between galaxies for the hiding place of Harbinger's fleet. They also hoped to produce such a colossal telescope as to be able to look at a planet 1.58 light-teraseconds away and take visual images of the planet being harvested by the Great Abominations to prove to the Prothean Empire and the rest of the galaxy the need to prepare.

In 6000 PCE, frustrated with the glacial pace of organic production methods to replace their kind such as cloning of neural tissue for organic brains to be placed into new synthetic bodies, the Metacon turned to fully sapient AI. The creation of these AI were in accordance with the laws of the Stellar Confederation as it existed at the time of the invasion of the Great Abominations, meaning the AI were originally not tasked with military objectives or anything else that could cause the AI to interpret an objective as harming organics. The first Metacon AI, known as Dark Hunter for its role in improving the deep space monitoring facility at their Tirandi Veil fortress, was not given a military role and was tasked with proving the existence of the Great Abominations through extensive long range surveys of space. Dark Hunter knew that any information beamed directly to the Imperial Citadel from the Quasar Fortress, as the Protheans had named the Metacon capital for its extremely high luminosity across the electromagnetic spectrum for an object its size long before they had any idea what it was, would be immediately dismissed as enemy propaganda. To avoid such disregard for their warnings, the Metacon planned to send any information they wanted in Prothean Imperial hands to the Densorin Kritarchy or the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha, and arrange for one of those powers' representatives to pass the information to the Avatar Conclave on the Imperial Citadel. The densorin were generally easier to work with, possibly due to biological or cultural similarities between them and the inusannon facilitating communication and the adoption of ancient technology. The zha had poor relations with the Prothean Empire and their warnings would be taken less seriously than those of the densorin, who had a reputation for being far superior in the sciences to even jardaan.

While millions of first through third iteration preservation modules continued to exist, fourth iteration Metacon platforms harboured AI constructed with the intelligence of ordinary inusannon, typically with personality imprints at first though imprints of two or more could be combined to create distinct personalities for imprint into the AI, allowing that AI to think like the organics from whom they evolved and even respond emotionally to interaction with organics. It was believed the Metacon would be more effective defenders of organic life if they were emotionally invested in the outcome of the upcoming galactic invasion. These fourth-iteration units were produced in large numbers over the next few thousand years in the Tirandi Veil as the Metacon raised a vast fleet and armies to, if possible, ambush and destroy Harbinger's fleet in dark space before they awakened, or failing that, to fight alongside the organic forces of the galaxy. Like their earlier incarnations, fourth iteration Metacon units initially called themselves by inusannon names and identified as forces of the Stellar Confederation, when doing so would not get them attacked. The AI were not offended by the use of the M-word, but were less likely to correct organics who used it than earlier iteration units, and at this point were concerned with more important things than what organics chose to call them, like finding the Great Abominations in dark space and destroying them before they destroyed the Protheans and their neighbours, or orchestrating the destruction of the Imperial Citadel as a last resort, to trap their fleet in dark space where it would have to advance to the galaxy at basic FTL speeds, adding several gigaseconds to their travel time that could be used to help the Protheans prepare... or get them to stop attacking the Metacon long enough to believe that they were not the machines that sought their extinction.

Their ships, however, were still the same frigates and cruisers they had been using since the fall of Nazar, albeit upgraded with AI tasked with guiding the ship. They had just produced a lot more of them in the Tirandi Veil during thousands of years of isolation. They were durable and very powerful, especially when their pilots and crews had VIs in their brains enabling them to react like AIs and their captains had advanced combat and command and control technology in their systems; Nazara had almost been killed in 2800 PCE by a lone cruiser and three frigates. Contrary to myth, the Metacon did not murder organic explorers venturing into their space. Few of those who ventured deep into Metacon space survived, but that was because most people going anywhere near Metacon space came in heavily armed starships captained by people with immense fear or hostility toward synthetic life.

In 8716 PCE, fifth iteration Metacon units were created in the Tirandi Veil. Superior in intellect to ordinary inusannon, these were tasked with the operation of Metacon long-range scanning equipment and collating data. The Metacon had been working with AI for thousands of years. They knew to limit their numbers and not to task them with conducting warfare and used fourth-iteration troops as foot soldiers well after sixth-iteration units were invented after the Metacon War broke out in 17,481 PCE. Due to the relatively low numbers of fifth-iteration units created, most Metacon up until 18,000 PCE were fourth-iteration units shipped in from the Tirandi Veil, their intelligence limited to that of ordinary inusannon.

Unlike fourth and earlier iteration Metacon, fifth and higher iteration Metacon did not call themselves by inusannon names. Fifth and sixth iteration Metacon were typically named by their creators, teams of earlier-iteration units, for their intended purpose and order of creation. For example, Preserver-4821 was the 4,821st unit tasked with preserving the code of fourth-iteration or VI architecture of third and lower iteration units, by receiving code uploads from damaged platforms, and if applicable, securing new mechanical bodies should the quantum-locked brain chambers with attached stasis generators of lower iteration units require them. Sixth-iteration units incorporated zha'til technology when their alliance brought them against the Prothean Empire, vastly increasing the resistance of Metacon to heat.

While the Metacon kept their old alliances with the densorin and zha, the densorin wisely kept their alliance with the Metacon a secret, even enduring attacks by oravore slavers on their colony worlds that their small army was hard pressed to resist, and resorting to sharing intelligence with the Prothean Empire to deal with aggressors. The zha, many of whom had allowed themselves to be implanted with synthetic technology or in extreme cases even had only their brains preserved in modules similar to those of the inusannon who appeared to them as Metacon, were more isolated from the rest of the galaxy and surrounded by rapidly developing Prothean colonies. While the zha had never desired expansion beyond what their species needed to live, the Prothean Empire threatened to crowd them out of their own habitat. The Metacon kept watch over the galaxy by leaving only a few dozen agents on major populated planets, converted to infiltrators by the addition of an artificial epidermis to pass as members of the local organic sapient species, to communicate with the main body, normally basic units tasked with observation, or Vigilant units in the rare case that some sort of additional combat ability or processing power was required. They also retained their diplomatic and military presences on Krotar and Khaanra, the densorin and zha homeworlds, though these were well hidden. Since fourth iteration and higher Metacon units were full AI and not the cyborgs of the first through third iterations, they lacked the rare biotics that had created the Defender and Demolisher platforms of the first to third iteration. To compensate, their shields were greatly upgraded as well as their defensive and offensive technological abilities.

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The synril, a green, yellowish or blue-skinned empathic species of reptilian biped native to the planet Kitarilli, developed space flight in 17,000 PCE after the Sixth Global War left much of their homeworld radioactive. Their first contact with another species was with oravore slavers in 17,080 PCE, and after a humiliating defeat the synril concluded the galaxy was a cruel place where the strong enslaved the weak with none to stop them, and embarked on their own campaign of enslaving and conquering primitive worlds to expand. In 17,155 PCE the synril detected a radio signal from the planet A'xat'ju, and scanning it, discovered a society with a population of ten billion avian bipeds similar to the zha but more colourful and having only three eyes on the verge of spaceflight technology, having already deployed satellites capable of scanning and detecting electromagnetic radiation in all spectra, and robotic lunar drones mining the three moons of their homeworld. The ditakur, the native sapient species of A'xat'ju, were well armed for a pre-spaceflight civilisation, with nuclear missiles that would have heavily damaged the synril fleet if they had been aggressive enough initially to use them, and a mid-sized, well-trained ground army equipped with machine guns with extremely high rates of fire. While they fought well initially, they lacked numbers against the synril and rapidly lost ground to the invaders, despite killing more than ten of the synril for every one of their own. When their parliament finally decided to use nuclear weapons to neutralise the synril fleet, the invaders intercepted the command and targeted the nuclear launch sites with their own weapons. Despite a well trained army, the ditakur had not fought major naval wars on their planet and thus had no submarine-launched nuclear devices that would be less easily spotted from orbit. The synril then landed troops on A'xat'ju in force, along with a civilian population to outcompete the natives for the planet's resources.

For two hundred years the ditakur fought savagely to purge the invaders from their planet. While initial resistance had been well disciplined, the loss of their armies meant that trained professional soldiers drilled in honourable treatment of prisoners of war were replaced by militias with no regard for ancient military honour codes who sought to stop the synril from breeding them out by killing their children whenever found and attacking hospitals and nurseries to slow their birth rates. For their part, the synril often retaliated for such attacks with the destruction of ditakur medical and power facilities, causing the deaths of millions and inciting tens of millions to further acts of brutality against the invaders. While some ditakur leaders did advocate fighting the synril as any planetary opponent and abstaining from acts they had deemed war crimes such as targeting medical facilities, they were shouted down by the majority who pointed out that they had been attacked unprovoked by a vastly superior force and must use any means to weaken such a superior force before peace could even be considered. Even many in the moderate minority often were motivated less by sympathy for the synril prisoners of war gruesomely executed to demoralise the invader than by concern for how depraved their own people were becoming in response to the brutal conditions.

The tide of the war finally shifted and allowed the ditakur a fighting chance against the synril in 17,283 PCE when a hidden planetary defence cannon destroyed a synril cruiser while the ship was discharging its drive core on the planet, and ditakur infantry supporting an intelligence unit obtained data before being forced to retreat by a supporting frigate destroying the cannon and attacking the ditakur resistance, enabling the Ditakur Confederacy to build its own warships from scratch once the blueprints were properly analysed and the facilities constructed in secret to build and house them. It was not until 17,291 PCE that DCS V'nak'ta, the first ditakur frigate of her class, launched from A'xat'ju and destroyed the synril frigate stationed over the planet to oversee the occupation by ground forces, signaling the birth of the ditakur navy. By 17,300 PCE, the Ditakur Confederacy Navy had six other V'nak'ta class frigates and one cruiser, DCS Z'jal'ku, all based on reverse engineered synril technology. This advance, however, only gave the natives of A'xat'ju hope of victory against a now not so technologically superior opponent, not the numbers needed to drive the invaders from their land. However, their relentless guerrilla campaigns against the civilian synril living in settlements on A'xat'ju, such as poisoning water supplies and sabotaging medical, especially infant delivery, facilities did slow the settlers' population growth rate drastically between 17,290 PCE and 17,310 PCE, at which point their population growth declined. Ditakur sappers tunneled into synril settlements, killing families and hanging their impaled or skinned corpses outside the dwelling as a warning. Many synril settlers left the planet, or converted to the Illumination.

The Illumination was an epiphany preached by a charismatic pacifist named Ylar, a young synril female who called for a path to eternal peace. In 17,275 PCE she had begun preaching that all in the universe came from a common origin and were aspects of a greater whole. This was not a religion in the traditional sense, no dogma open to multiple interpretations accusing each other of heresy and sparking yet another of the religious wars that had plagued the synril since they first learned to write back in 12,000 PCE. The Illumination eschewed conflict for territorial, mating or resource acquisition, and Ylar gained a substantial following on Kitarilli. At first, the Synril Primacy paid little attention to what they saw as a pacifist cult. As long as it remained a minority, the Warpriests of the Primacy would have enough recruits to throw into A'xat'ju until it was brought to heel. While the synril controlled most major cities, they did not have effective control of areas between them, which were still controlled by ditakur guerrillas. Ylar was murdered in 17,308 PCE by a Warpriest hoping to quell the Illumination, which had caused the desertion of over ten million synril soldiers on A'xat'ju.

That number would triple by 17,311 PCE, the teachings of the prophet only accelerated by the brutality of her murder. Occupation soldiers, demoralised by their inability to defeat the relatively primitive natives and seeking an end to conflict, converted to the Illumination. Some took even greater risks with their lives than deserting the Primacy's army, going to ditakur communities to preach the Illumination. Millions of ditakur did convert to the Illumination as well, but the ideology did not spread as quickly among them as it did with the synril for two reasons. First, the ditakur were not empaths like the synril and they did not have the same keen sense of others' feelings, on the contrary avoiding large social gatherings due to the same territorial nature that made it difficult for them to serve in units larger than a battalion strength or on ships larger than cruisers. Secondly, ditakur officials murdered converts with the same zeal with which they slaughtered synril, regarding the converts as traitors duped by enemy propaganda. The Illumination itself was viewed by a large portion of the ditakur population as an insidious synril weapon to erode the ditakur will to purify their homeworld and cause them to submit to alien rule, and this was made credible by the fact that the exposure of the ditakur to the Illumination took place at the height of the brutality of the occupation.

By 17,360 PCE the Synril Primacy itself had accepted the Illumination and the Warpriests stood down, willingly accepting the decision of the majority to withdraw from all occupied planets, including A'xat'ju. This resulted in the military forces of the synril standing down and withdrawing. Civilian settlers on occupied planets were offered the same option, and while most did for self-preservation, few remained to preach the Illumination. While this became treated over time on most formerly synril occupied planets as just another of the cultural philosophies of the society and tolerated on worlds where freedom of expression was valued to some extent, on A'xat'ju preaching or following the Illumination was equated with treason and punishable by death. For decades the ditakur hunted and murdered both synril and ditakur followers of the Illumination. When the last synril settlement on A'xat'ju was destroyed in 17,420 PCE in the K'zal'nu Massacre which claimed the lives of thirty-seven million synril, the Ditakur Confederacy sealed its borders and guarded mass relays into their territory, which they had learned about in 17,283 PCE when they began to reverse engineer synril technology and glean data from captured examples, though no ditakur had actually seen a mass relay with their own eyes until 17,303 PCE. Diplomatic contact with the Prothean Empire began in 17,445 PCE with a skirmish between a Prothean cruiser and a trio of ditakur frigates, leading to two of the frigates being lost and the other one and the cruiser both disabled. This led to a rise in tensions followed by trade relations beginning between the two, though the ditakur steadfastly rejected proposals of alliance with the Empire, fearing dependency on a superior power that, while promising the ditakur homeworld would never fall again, refused to promise that the synril homeworld would.

By the time the synril presence on A'xat'ju was purged, almost two billion ditakur had died as a result of the war, with one hundred million of that number converts to the Illumination killed by their own species. While three times this number of synril had been killed by ditakur during this period, the kill count did little to slake the thirst of the Confederacy's leaders for acts of destruction that would have been unthinkable prior to the invasion. Most ditakur believed the great god U'jas'te had promised the ditakur a world of their own, where none other could settle, and that contamination of the sanctity of their promised homeworld was punishable by death. The ancient scriptures said nothing of exterminating entire species for the transgressions of some members. While secularist ditakur often disagreed with the excesses against the synril even if they were not converts to the Illumination, they were outnumbered by the violent majority calling for extirpation of the synril.

By the time the Illumination seriously weakened the position of the synril occupiers early in the 17,300s PCE, hatred ran so deep that ancient honour had been all but forgotten. Fearing for the soul of their species should it become so depraved as to willfully exterminate another species, especially one now desiring peace, some traditionalists and moderates among the ditakur parliament resorted to asking the Prothean Empire or even the Metacon to mediate peace. The Prothean Empire, eager to annex the weakened Synril Primacy and seeing no need to destroy what could be used, sent an ambassador in 17,315 PCE only to find that the conservative ditakur parliamentarian who had contacted her had been executed for treason along with the entire moderate wing of the ditakur parliament and be rudely advised that the synril were none of the Protheans' concern and told to leave by the ditakur Chief Minister. The Metacon saw the synril as pacified, even more peaceful now than the inusannon had been, desired to preserve their species and its right to self-determination, and saw the merciless brutality of the ditakur, while potentially useful against the Great Abominations, as a threat to galactic stability, not to mention sapient biodiversity, as long as it was focused on driving the synril to extinction. The Metacon AI Peacemaker-3 contacted the ditakur parliament via direct FTL communication the ditakur day after the visit by the Prothean Ambassador Mitasa Numal, and found that none of the ditakur lawmakers who had contacted the Metacon had survived either, executed on charges of collaborating with the Metacon and the Synril Primacy. Worse, the Metacon recommendation that the ditakur agree to fix borders with the Synril Primacy and secure its own space, while similar in substance to Ambassador Mitasa's recommendation but lacking any provision for protectorate status or stationing forces in ditakur territory and reasonable enough to outside observers without a strong bias against machines, was taken as proof of the Synril Primacy's alleged collusion with the Metacon which was used by the Ditakur Confederacy much later to weaken Prothean opinion against eradicating the species.

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The Enduromi Hierarchy had been a spacefaring society since roughly 11,000 PCE, developing mostly by peaceful expansion and assimilation from its homeworld of Imtar. When its borders expanded in 14,800 PCE to contact those of the Prothean Empire, it resulted in the first diplomatic contacts. The enduromi accepted trade pacts after centuries of heavily defended borders weakening the Hierarchy's forces elsewhere in 15,500 PCE. At around the same time, the vandomar, a sapient species of quadrupedal pachyderm, developed spaceflight and began to colonise worlds on the other end of the mass relay from its homeworld of Varikan, including worlds where enduromi colonies were already occupying part of the planet. Their democratic form of government, introduced in 16,900 PCE to the enduromi living on worlds where vandomar settlers gave all regardless of class, wealth or progressively, even species, equal say in the running of the colony, appealed to many lower class enduromi who saw in it a way to have a say in their own government, while frightening the upper class enduromi who felt they had earned their positions and saw the growing calls for egalitarianism as a threat.

Contact with the vandomar would be the greatest threat the Hierarchs had faced since their last war of expansion in 13,000 PCE had nearly seen their government collapse as the military advanced beyond the abilities of its supply lines, sustained heavy casualties, and left minimal forces available to keep order on the homefront, where calls for peace were at the strongest in their history. The vandomar were not especially bellicose, their settlers generally did not harm other colonies on the planet, and they tended to work equitable resource sharing agreements among themselves or with anyone else on colony worlds they inhabited. They lacked the numbers for sustained warfare, breeding much more slowly than other species. Vandomar could live for over two thousand Prothean years, but did not become fertile until more than three hundred Prothean years of age.

Initially the Vandomar Republic did not see the enduromi as a threat. They eagerly welcomed peaceful coexistence with alien species. Since most of the enduromi they had initially encountered were lower class colonists seeking a better living, they were less inclined to believe their government's propaganda and had few qualms about living among the vandomar. Some upper class colonists tried to encourage xenophobia, but most lower class enduromi saw through it. With less biased vandomar educational facilities available to the enduromi on colony worlds, the rift between lower and upper class enduromi grew as did calls for democratisation. By 17,160 PCE, communities of educated lower class enduromi openly called for democratic revolution to replace the Hierarchs with ones chosen by the people rather than those at the top of the meritocracy. When civil war broke out in the Enduromi Hierarchy in 17,325 PCE, the Prothean Ambassador Kinas Gral proposed peace terms by which the Enduromi Hierarchy and Vandomar Republic would recognise each other's sovereignty and not work to subvert one another's government, and both would become protectorates of the Prothean Empire. For this, Ambassador Kinas became the Avatar of Peace.

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17,480 PCE

Nazara surfaced once again from its hiding place on the other end of the relay. The Metacon frigate that had been watching the relay was quickly destroyed, but not quickly enough to stop its signal to the other Metacon Hives that Nazara had surfaced. Vice Admiral Jevan Zor, who had been watching the relay for over 13,000 Prothean years, was killed by a flight of oculi piloted by zha husks as soon as he sent the emergency FTL missive to Admiral Vanik Tau.

After defeating the Metacon frigate, Nazara went to zha space to indoctrinate the small power's military and incite war with the Prothean Empire that would weaken them and the Metacon to leave the Empire vulnerable when it came time to go to the Nexus to summon Harbinger's fleet. Nazara succeeded in indoctrinating Admiral Zan'porovesk of the Zha Second Fleet and his vessel TPS Nan'kovotar. The Admiral had been a militarist, advocating for settling nearby worlds regardless of how many Protheans or anyone else was there, to preserve his species, but was not convinced the Protheans' species all needed to be eradicated until Nazara told him. He boarded Nazara when it identified as being of the same people who created his synthetic allies, gaining the Admiral's trust and even creating a false image when he wanted to speak to a Metacon representative. Once the zha admiral was indoctrinated, he returned to his command cruiser with new war plans. It was simple enough to modify a few EMP bombs to have a greater than usual radiation output. He was the agent of the Protheans' extinction, and his heart swelled with pride even as the voices of Nazara told him just how to destroy the invasive sapient species on his people's rightful colony.

Vanik Tau and his Metacon fleet arrived at the relay in response to Zor's distress call, just in time to see Nazara retreat to its hiding place, and after that the guard fleet was expanded to twenty cruisers and one hundred eighty frigates. If Nazara showed up again, it would be captured if possible and destroyed if not. Tau remained on standby with his fleet until receiving a distress call from the Zha Second Fleet, which reported it was under attack by the Prothean fleet.

Emboldened by the sudden return of large Metacon forces to the relay, which had been in zha space for millennia, the zha set its sights on the one planet of twenty-four they had colonised during their desperate efforts twenty millennia prior to find a new homeworld. A Prothean colony now spanned the planet the zha called Nha'pran, the site of an earlier zha colonisation effort. Believing that their Metacon allies would aid them despite being the aggressors, the Technocratic Federation Admiral Zan'porovesk deployed four zha cruisers, twelve frigates, and six zha'til weapons platforms, cruiser-sized AI-piloted platforms densely packed with enough weapons to provide near dreadnought-level firepower, taking orders from Zan'porovesk and other zha admirals.

Nha'pran, or as the Prothean Empire called it, Zevuton-8, in 17,480 PCE had a population of three and a half billion Protheans, about 60% tulamorian, 10% jardaan, 10% vank'sher, 10% oravore, 5% enduromi and 5% other species. Since the Protheans had believed the zha extinct, and Metacon other than a lone frigate watching the relay had not appeared in thousands of years, the Empire considered it one of the safest places in the Empire, other than possibly Nusan or the Imperial Citadel. As such, the arrogant imperialists did not even have a defence fleet in place around one of the Empire's smaller and more far flung colonies.

Zan'porovesk's fleet opened fire on the largest Prothean population centres on the planet. While his cruisers pounded the cities, his frigates bombed roads and bridges to herd the population right into the cities the zha'til fleet was bombarding, where the cruisers dropped powerful neutron pulse bombs to irradiate the population. Where ground-based defence cannons were located, zha'til weapons platforms disgorged thousands of flying zha hybrid synthetic troops. These zha'til forces were large enough to block out sunlight in regions they covered. Organic zha soldiers lacking the synthetic implants of the zha'til, for not all of their race had adopted them, wore radiation suits under their heavy armour to protect themselves as they fought and secured territory for the zha to take over.

Within six hours, the Technocratic Federated Peoples' First Division landed on the planet to secure Prothean infrastructure. While they had managed to destroy the colony's communications infrastructure, they could not be certain the colony had not already called in the Imperial fleet. Zan'porovesk kept his zha'til weapons platforms in reserve around the planet's moon while landing his frigates on the planet and holding his cruisers in orbit. When the Prothean Third Fleet arrived, Zan'porovesk simultaneously ordered his frigates to ambush the Prothean fleet while the zha admiral called on his Metacon allies to intervene, opening a QEC link to Admiral Vanik Tau.

Admiral Tau was in a very awkward position. He had promised protection to the zha, and even helped them when they designed the synthetic zha hybrids known as zha'til. Despite his own negative view of Prothean imperialism, however, the Protheans were the ones attacked here, and billions of civilians had lost their lives when the zha struck. The Metacon would not take part in a war of aggression. The zha fleet would be on its own for the impending Prothean reprisal, but Admiral Tau did order a quarter of his fleet to be on standby to move to defend Khaanra if needed.

Their treaty with the zha would defend them against Prothean aggression, but not help them conduct offensive operations. It also bound the Metacon to provide resources necessary to life such as nutrients and water to the zha homeworld to ensure their survival, but this was barely sufficient to maintain current low population levels, not to enable massive expansion. This policy had precedent in the Metacon treaty with the Oravore Union, where they were promised defence against Prothean attacks but not against reprisals for slaving operations, and the political pressure in the Oravore Union from this aspect of the treaty forced the Union to legally ban slavery in 2965 PCE. While it continued illegally for thousands of years in far flung colonies on the Union's periphery, reducing it from official state policy to proscribed activity decreased the number of slaves in the Union from seven billion in 2800 PCE, at the height of Z'Kavnil Tokmasg's operations, to three hundred million in 3000 PCE, mostly held by pirate chiefs. At the height of ditakur resistance, the Metacon had offered assistance in the reverse engineering of synril weapons to help the new spacefaring society defend itself from aggression in 17,290 PCE, but the ditakur turned on them very rapidly when they realised that the Metacon had no intention of helping them exterminate the synril. The Metacon were less able to aid the vandomar because their territory at the time they acquired spaceflight was almost completely surrounded by either Prothean Imperial or Enduromi Hierarchic territory, both extremely hostile to the Metacon.

"We recognise your right to reclaim your colony," said Admiral Tau. "However, we realise that the exercise of this right has led to a territorial dispute with the Prothean Empire. It is in the interest of the Stellar Confederation to prevent this territorial dispute from escalating to war, which was made more difficult by your attack claiming the lives of three point five billion Protheans. We recommend a meeting on neutral ground, between Avatar Kinas of the Prothean Empire, Technocratic Council President Zax'jandorel, and myself to determine the path that our societies will take."

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The peace summit took place aboard the densorin dreadnought M'Stek, a move suggested by High Kritarch G'Narus Z'Nakh. Avatar of Peace Kinas Gral, 550 Prothean years old in 17,480 PCE, represented the Prothean Empire. President Zax'jandorel represented the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha, and Admiral Vanik Tau represented the Stellar Confederation, known to the rest of the galaxy as Metacon. The three sat at a triangular table. Admiral Tau, while an ally of the zha, knew that war with the Prothean Empire would be costly and likely preclude the Stellar Confederation from its raison d'etre of defending the galaxy when the Great Abominations returned. It would be less than forty gigaseconds now. Nazara had returned and destroyed the vessel tasked with watching the relay, and Tau's fleet had apparently caused the zha to feel emboldened about taking offensive action against the Prothean Empire on a scale unheard of. No Prothean colony with billions had been wiped out to the last prior to 17,480 PCE when the zha forces struck.

Kinas had not become the Avatar of Peace by acting like a bellicose imperial warlord. He was willing to make concessions no other Prothean would, by offering whatever was necessary to maintain peace. Unfortunately, the Avatar's job was complicated by the Avatars of Strength, Victory and War, whose objectives ran directly counter to those of the former ambassador and now Avatar. It was also complicated by the hostility of the zha to the Prothean Empire, which had kept them contained and even attacked their shipments of Metacon aid.

"It will be very difficult to convince my people not to retaliate," said Avatar Kinas, taking the hand of President Zax'jandorel. The Avatar read the zha leader and saw only a leader seeking to ensure the survival of his species. "I can only hope to convince the other Avatars that your desire for peace is sincere," said Kinas, releasing Zax'jandorel's hand. "The Prothean Empire has no interest in the zha homeworld of Khaanra, nor in exterminating a species that may one day join the Empire. However, three and a half billion Protheans are dead, and their families in other parts of the Empire want justice and an assurance that Imperial forces will protect their people. I am prepared to offer protectorate status, under which the zha would be permitted to retain their homeworld of Khaanra as well as Nha'pran."

The Avatar's use of the zha name of the planet rather than the Prothean name Zevuton-8 was an intentional territorial concession. By yielding it to a small power that was driven to desperation sufficient to cause them to launch a major offensive action against the Prothean Empire, the Avatar of Peace hoped to weaken the zha's reliance on synthetics, make the zha more amenable to later assimilation, and avoid war with their machines, one of whom was staring at him and the zha leader. Through reading the zha President, Avatar Kinas learned that the Metacon held the brains of ancient civilisations in them, and more importantly for the peace summit, also learned not to use the M-word around Admiral Tau.

"The Technocratic Federated Peoples are proud to retain their independence," said President Zax'jandorel. "However, we cannot accept Imperial law on synthetic intelligence. We do not seek to expand beyond what our small species requires to survive, and synthetic intelligence has helped us for millennia. It is as integral a part of our culture as your ban and the cosmic imperative are to yours."

"What is your take on the matter, Admiral Tau?" asked Avatar Kinas. "The military will want to know why our colony was bombarded right when your fleet came in from the Tirandi Veil."

Tau's three lights dimmed, then flashed very brightly, then back to their original light blue. "Stellar Confederation forces responded to a report of Nazara emerging from Relay 616 and destroying our patrol frigate near the relay. By the time our forces arrived, Nazara had retreated back beyond the relay, and within one hundred kiloseconds of our arrival we detected massive movement of zha forces. President Zax'jandorel, did you see anything resembling this near your planet?" The Metacon leader activated his omni-tool, projecting an image of Nazara.

"Not near my homeworld," said Zax'jandorel. "But Admiral Zan'porovesk reported seeing it while on patrol roughly a megasecond before he deployed to Nha'pran. He believed it was a warship of the inusannon, which he could integrate into the zha'til fleet. He went aboard alone, expecting to speak to a representative of the Stellar Confederation. Instead he found himself walking through a maze hearing voices. Then he thought he saw you, Admiral Tau."

Tau's lights now flared a very bright red, and his voice adopted a note of fear. "Now I believe I understand. Nazara... the Great Abomination made from my people, whose makers forced me and my kind to put our brains into these mechanical bodies to avoid their... harvest... has most likely warped Admiral Zan'porovesk's mind. Have you known him to fight with such brutality in the past?"

"No, Admiral Tau. The zha have not sought war, and we have certainly never killed an entire planet's population in the billions. The war plan Zan'porovesk submitted to me was to use an EMP to disable the Protheans' communication devices and then just land troops to occupy enough territory to create a defensible colony, preferably as far from a Prothean city as possible. I didn't know he had those neutron weapons. They aren't a standard part of the zha arsenal. I wonder where he got them..."

The Metacon Admiral stood, his voice cold and impassive. "I need you to listen to me. Your Admiral is a victim of the mind warp. Nazara has convinced him to start a war with the Prothean Empire that will see your race and theirs destroyed. Nazara probably either provided the weapons or Zan'porovesk had them modified from available armament under its influence. He is not himself. If I can get to him, and take him to the thor'an on Seuthes II, its spores can cure him, or at least weaken the hold the abomination has on him."

Avatar Kinas nodded. "How do you plan to capture this admiral, if what you say is true? He is on a warship fighting with the Imperial Third Fleet as we speak. His zha'til weapons platforms are the only thing keeping him alive, and he will not last the Third Fleet's bombardment much longer. I can instruct the Third Fleet to attempt to capture Zan'porovesk alive. We can then find out about this mind warp or if we can cure it."

Zax'jandorel shook his head. "Zan'porovesk will not allow himself to be taken alive. He knows what the Protheans do to prisoners they deem to be guilty of war crimes, and knows his atrocities will receive no mercy. He will fight to the death."

"That assumes most of his basic personality is intact," replied Tau. "That he has gone from a colonisation plan to extermination indicates rapid mind warp. His mental faculties may not be intact to any meaningful extent. Can you contact him?"

Zax'jandorel pulled his omni-tool. "Admiral Zan'porovesk, this is President Zax'jandorel. I am at a peace conference with Admiral Tau and Avatar Kinas."

Zan'porovesk replied over the omni-tool in a hostile tone. "Admiral Tau, that son of a pyjak! He's just going to watch while the Protheans massacre us?" His image flickered. "Cruisers, close with the Penumbra Apex! Frigates, target the escorts! All weapon platforms, take out that dreadnought cannon before it eradicates our whole people!"

Tau finally spoke up. "I have no intention of seeing you or your people killed by the Empire. Nazara, the warship you identified as mine, is a Great Abomination and has a mind-warping field that alters your thinking, causes you to support its objectives of cyclically eradicating spacefaring life. You must comprehend that it has warped your mind, swayed you to believe in its objectives. It will not defend you against the Protheans. Its only purpose for you is to make its harvest easier by weakening the forces of the galaxy, and you have outlived your usefulness to them. It will only leave you to your fate. I can try to cure you with thor'an spores if the mind warp is not too advanced, but once it progresses to loss of basic mental function, the Abomination's control is finalised."

"Deceitful machine!" bellowed the zha admiral. "You promise us defence against the Protheans and leave us to be slaughtered like baby livestock when we claim our colony. Our homeworld is dead, Metacon! Our only hope is to seize the territory the Protheans have stolen from us, that our species may survive and one day be strong. Nazara will slaughter the Protheans like the vermin they are and free the galaxy from their tyranny!"

The zha president raised his voice. "Admiral, I order you to stand down your forces, retreat to Khaanra, and report immediately for a medical examination. You are unfit to command in your mental state. Nazara is the deceitful machine. Admiral Tau wants to save you and the lives of our people from a needless war."

"Traitor! You and your accursed machine have condemned our people to extinction!" A loud explosion terminated the omni-tool conversation between the zha president and admiral. A shot from the main cannon of the Penumbra Apex had destroyed Admiral Zan'porovesk's command vessel.

Zax'jandorel lowered his head in despair. "I did not know that he had fallen that far. We did not always see eye to eye, but we served in the fleet together and he ran against me for Technocratic Council President in the 17,465 PCE election. When he lost, he went back to the fleet. He had made calls for retaking the colony, but I never thought him capable of this. Would the Empire's ban on synthetic life bar our alliance with the Stellar Confederation?"

The Avatar of Peace smiled. "These... beings have organic brains in synthetic bodies. I am sure I can persuade the Avatar Conclave that they are not AI, that they still have the emotions and free will of organic beings, the chaos that defines us as organic. If I am successful, the Empire will seek its own alliance with this Stellar Confederation. To be honest, the fate of your species was one of our people's greatest mysteries. Some say you ascended to a higher plane of existence, others that you moved to the dwarf galaxies surrounding ours, a few believe in the Great Abominations but most call them a myth. Until now I would have been with the majority, it was only after reading President Zax'jandorel that I was convinced. We need more proof of these Great Abominations, however. The Conclave will simply say that Admiral Zan'porovesk had become insane or was already harbouring genocidal intentions toward the Empire."

Tau raised his head. "Only first through third iteration units are actually inazar preservation modules, containing VI systems enabling rapid access of any memory. I am a first iteration, that is, one of the original people of my species whose brain was preserved inside a unit like this. Because of my rank, I was placed in a command and control unit, what you call a Vigilant. Cloned brain tissue from fallen first-iteration units was used in the creation of second-iteration units from roughly 2875 PCE to 3400 PCE. Third iteration units were created from 3400 to 4600 PCE on the densorin homeworld of Krotar from cloned DNA of our species grown in laboratories and used to grow bodies for implantation of brains into more units to create more of our species."

"A novel method of propagating your species," said the Avatar. "I pray that the races of the Empire do not have to preserve themselves as you do. Tell me about the other iterations... you said only the first to third preserved your species?"

"Fourth iteration units, created in 6000 PCE, are fully sapient AI, but no more intelligent than our organic brains... just better memory," said Admiral Tau. "Fifth iteration units were created in the Nazar year 100,000, which corresponds to 8716 PCE, in limited numbers, no more than one hundred thousand, to handle tasks that required more computational power than a single mind can accomplish in a reasonable time frame and as emergency upload platforms for fourth iteration units. No fifth iteration units have left the Tirandi Veil and the few fourth iteration units deployed can be recalled if such will facilitate peace between the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha and the Prothean Empire."

"I did not expect such concessions from the M... machines," said the Avatar, barely stopping himself from using the M-word while on the verge of concluding peace between synthetics and the Prothean Empire. "The Avatar Conclave, hopefully, will call a halt to the hostilities. What do the Technocratic Federated Peoples intend to do?"

"Ask the Empire to allow aid from the Stellar Confederation to flow freely into Khaanra. The planet may yet not be beyond our ability to save, but we will need much more water on the planet. Our weather modification technology has long been ineffective. The Stellar Confederation sends in megatons of soil and water and fuel, but evading Imperial patrols often means these shipments are delayed by megaseconds. Since they need little for themselves other than raw materials to keep their preservation modules and ships running, our planet is still within their ability to save, but we will need a fall back location between twelve and sixteen hundred years from now when our star goes red giant."

"The Stellar Confederation will assist when that time comes," said Admiral Tau. "In the meantime, your plan is sound and will avoid future conflict with the Prothean Empire."

XXXXXXXX

I.P.V. Penumbra Apex was heavily damaged, perhaps the closest it had come to being destroyed in its fifteen thousand years of service. The ancient vessel had been refitted every other century with newer weapons, heavier armour, more advanced sensors and shields, and stronger engines. Battle damage often saw the replacement of an old gun with something more modern if it had been several decades since its last refit. The vessel looked nothing like it had when first launched in 2400 PCE; it was much larger and thicker with weapons and heavy armour now and could withstand anything up to the concentrated firepower of a densorin dreadnought.

Its usual commander, Admiral and Avatar of Strength Javik Rokal, was nowhere to be seen as the battered warship limped into the Imperial Citadel for repairs that would likely take megaseconds. He had left after destroying Admiral Zan'porovesk's command cruiser and most of his fleet, to board a stealth frigate. Penumbra Apex had detected signals being transmitted by the zha admiral to the Council President, which the admiral had foolishly sent on an unsecured channel. This data had indicated that the cowardly traitor Kinas Gral, the Avatar of Peace, was prepared to surrender to the zha what the Empire had rightfully seized by force. This enraged Avatar Javik, who believed that the Metacon would betray the Empire as they betrayed the zha. Kinas could not possibly be so naive as to think that surrendering to the zha would not embolden them and their Metacon allies to lay waste to vast swaths of the Empire before wiping each other out.

Due to the virus Javik had asked Avatar of Cunning Rikan Nanor to put on Kinas' omnitool, he could tell that the peace summit was being held on a densorin dreadnought. This was a formidable challenge even for the Avatar of Strength. Taking his ship under cloak to ten thousand kilometres from DKS M'Stek, he embarked onto a small shuttle wearing very heavy armour made to disguise him as a densorin officer, took the shuttle right up to M'Stek's airlock, and using his omnitool and a few specially designed self-deleting viruses, opened the airlock and snuck onto the ship, leaving six visually modified Prothean assassin mechs aboard his shuttle. Bringing them aboard now could compromise him or put the densorin crew on alert before Kinas was dead. Once aboard, his omnitool alerted him to the presence of a Vigilant, most likely the one calling itself Vanik Tau, believed to be the leader of the Metacon. He simply tracked Kinas' omnitool to the conference room of the dreadnought. He would perform the assassination himself, using the mechs as decoys. In his armour he packed a heavy pistol loaded with warp ammo to deal with Kinas' biotics and an arm load of EMP grenades to shut down the notoriously powerful shields of the Vigilant.

Javik approached the door to the conference room as the two ensigns on guard saluted whom they believed to be a densorin lieutenant commander. They stood aside as he opened the door to the conference room. Once inside, he threw an EMP grenade to scramble Tau's shields and stop him from interfering while he drew his pistol and shot Avatar Kinas. Since the Avatar of Peace had raised his biotic barriers as soon as he saw Tau go down, he took several shots to go down, urging the zha president to run. The avian did not get to the door before a bullet from Javik's stolen densorin pistol scrambled his brains. Admiral Tau struggled to re-initialise his shields, rushing up to Javik and producing a blade from his arm. It would have decapitated the jardaan had he not used a biotic charge through the Metacon commander, dropping him to the floor and damaging his shield generators. Tau fired a sharpened projectile from his other arm into Javik's chest, staggering him. If not for his heavy armour and barriers, the wound would have been fatal, but Javik dropped another EMP grenade, forced his armoured hands through Tau's weakened shields and released a dark channel of biotic energy into the Metacon, shredding his body. He then used his omnitool to signal the six assassin mechs he had on his shuttle to storm through the airlock. Visually modified to resemble zha'til war droids and Metacon Skirmisher units, the assassin mechs rampaged through the vessel shooting densorin crew members at random and sowing pandemonium, allowing Javik to escape in the confusion the way he came back, with the severed head of Avatar Kinas in one hand and Tau's body over his shoulder. Walking over the dead bodies of densorin crew and wrecks of his assassin mechs, Javik threw the Metacon admiral out the airlock and returned to the Imperial Citadel on his shuttle.

XXXXXXXX

Imperial Citadel, Prothean Imperial Capital

Avatar Javik met with the rest of the Avatar Conclave, explaining Avatar Kinas' death as being at the hands of the Vigilant brought by the zha president to assassinate the Avatar which then turned on him and would have taken over the M'Stek had it not been for the valour of the dozens of densorin marines who fell. Most Protheans, especially Avatars, despised AI in any form and completely believed the narrative of the Avatar of Strength. Non-Protheans typically called the Avatar of Peace a moderate who sought assimilation into the Empire through diplomacy rather than force, or a manipulative bastard who facilitated willing submission to Imperial rule. Prothean conservatives saw him as a dangerous threat to the Empire's way of life who would give so many concessions to the subject races that his loyalty to the cosmic imperative was called into question. When such an unpopular leader turned up dead, the Protheans saw it as proof of the failure of his policies. None in the Empire even suspected the Avatar of Strength as a murderer, let alone one willing to murder diplomats at a peace summit.

The Avatar Conclave easily passed Javik's motion for a declaration of war against the Metacon, and passed the Galactic Security Act of 17,481 PCE. This law banned the existence of AI in any form anywhere in the galaxy, including where the Empire did not actually rule, and gave Imperial forces a blank cheque to destroy any civilisation found to be developing AI for any purpose whatsoever. This did not sit well with most galactic powers. While the enduromi shared the Empire's view on AI, the Hierarchy was one of very few powers to be willing to ally with the Protheans. The zha holed up on Khaanra, their forces on Nha'pran obliterated without expected Metacon assistance, and offered to meet again with a Prothean diplomat, but the assassination meant that the new Council President Plax'navotel had no credibility with the Avatar Conclave and there was no Avatar willing to conclude peace so soon after a diplomatic assassination. While the Metacon fleet was still prepared to defend the zha homeworld in the event of an Imperial offensive, three quarters of the forces outside the Tirandi Veil were still monitoring Relay 616. The densorin fleet went on high alert, intentionally leaking information to Imperial Intelligence that they were concerned about Metacon infiltration, to allay any Prothean suspicions that they too were allied to the Metacon. High Kritarch K'Matos J'Var informed Metacon Ambassador Vekra Nur that her safety was at risk and that she should use an artificial epidermis to pose as a densorin. While the Densorin Kritarchy had not been penetrated by Prothean agents to the extent that the Oravore Union or Enduromi Hierarchy had, now was no time to reveal their alliance with the Metacon to the galaxy. The densorin did not have the numbers to wage a protracted war. The M'Stek's crew recovered the body of Admiral Tau after realising he was not among the wrecked machines, but were unable to repair the damage to his preservation module caused by a powerful biotic attack while his shields were down, so they buried his remains on Krotar with the honours of a national hero and sent the bodies of the Zha President and the Avatar of Peace back to Khaanra and V'Khar, respectively. The Protheans did not question the word of the Avatar of Strength that the Avatar of Peace was a traitor, but the zha did necropsy the body of their Council President, revealing the claim that he had been betrayed and murdered by Admiral Tau to be a Prothean lie. He had been killed with a densorin pistol using warp ammo, most likely to counter the biotic barriers of the Avatar of Peace protecting him. Electrical burns to his body indicated that EMP grenades had gone off near him at very close range, most likely for defeating the Metacon commander.

With the death of Admiral Tau, the Metacon were convinced that the Prothean Empire could not be negotiated with in good faith. Avatar Kinas had seemed a reasonable figure, having attained his position by forging peace between the enduromi and the vandomar. This peace did not long survive his death; a resurgent enduromi democracy movement led to brutal crackdowns by the Hierarchy on its own population, leading to fugitives from said crackdowns fleeing to vandomar colonies which would not extradite them. Depending on the priority attached by the Grand Hierarch to the fugitive, this could mean anything from blockading a planet to orbital kinetic and nuclear bombardment. Open warfare began again between the vandomar and enduromi within twenty Prothean years from Kinas' death. Data transmitted to the Hives from Admiral Tau's omnitool was heavily corrupted, an effect of the EMP attack and his failure to register the Avatar of Strength as a threat until directly attacked due to his armour covering his jardaan features and disguising him as a densorin officer. It did, however, suffice to show that Admiral Tau was not responsible for the murder of the Avatar of Peace. The densorin had already released the footage from inside their dreadnought appearing to show a densorin officer returning from extravehicular activities, walking to the chamber where Avatar Kinas and President Zax'jandorel were meeting with Admiral Tau, and the video inside even showed the figure in densorin armour throwing an EMP grenade on Admiral Tau before shooting the two visiting delegates with a pistol loaded with warp ammo judging from how it pierced the Avatar's barrier.

XXXXXXXX

The Metacon War began in earnest in 17,481 PCE with the First Battle of Relay 616, an assault by the Prothean First and Third Fleets on the Metacon fleet defending the mysterious red relay. While the Metacon won this battle, their fleet was severely crippled and most of the first-iteration admirals were killed. Most of the survivors went to Khaanra to help the zha plan their defence, and around this time, the sixth iteration Metacon unit was created by adding zha'til technology to the enhanced intelligence of the rare fifth iteration Metacon, replacing them as the primary carriers for transfer of Metacon and allied zha'til AI to other platforms. With the passage in the Avatar Conclave of a declaration of war against the Metacon, as the declaration referred to the synthetic forces of the Stellar Confederation and its zha'til ally, fourth-iteration Metacon units were shipped from the Tirandi Veil by the millions to defend Khaanra.

The Prothean Empire became the most belligerent it had ever been, issuing an order signed by Avatar Javik himself commanding all races of the galaxy to ally with the Prothean Empire against the zha'til and the Metacon. It was at this time that the M-word came to refer in lay Prothean parlance to synthetic forces of diverse or uncertain origins. Avatar Javik did not believe that peace was possible with the zha with them so heavily syntheticised already, and he knew not the true origin of their Metacon ally, merely that they possessed similarities with ancient inusannon technology and had not bothered to examine the remains of Vanik Tau before throwing the Vigilant out the airlock. Most advanced technology had some similarities with inusannon tech and the true origin of the Metacon was a mystery to most Protheans. Some said they had been created by the zha or one of the other species that had fought Prothean imperial rule. Others said they were rogue inusannon AI. Yet more said they came from beyond the galaxy, the latter made more credible by their movements from the Tirandi Veil on the edge of the galaxy appearing to move outside the galaxy. Javik neither knew nor cared, only that the Metacon were a dangerous threat to Imperial expansion no matter what the machines called themselves or claimed to represent.

Not all species agreed with Javik's brutal plan; the Ditakur Confederacy had no interest in an alliance with the Empire that would pose the same threat to its independence as the Synril Primacy once had, the Oravore Union stated that it would only fight the Metacon if attacked directly by them, and the Vandomar Republic stated that it had become a Prothean protectorate for protection against aggression from the Enduromi Hierarchy, not to be drawn into Imperial crusades across the galaxy from their zone of interest. The Densorin Kritarchy agreed to share technology with the Prothean Empire under the advice of the Metacon Ambassador, Commander Vekra Nur, who wished to preserve the secrecy of her people's alliance with the densorin to protect them from the Prothean retribution the zha faced, elude suspicion of densorin - Metacon collusion, and avoid dragging them into the war. She advised the densorin that while they had the technology to resist a Prothean invasion, they did not have the numbers to fight the Empire in open battle, and that revealing her as an ally would only cause massive loss of life to all sides she wished to avoid. Metacon strategy against the Prothean Empire was to inflict enough damage to weaken the Empire's will to fight them, without causing so much damage the Empire would be left helpless against the Great Abominations who she projected would show up again in approximately a thousand years. Their goal was to damage the hostile Prothean military only to the extent needed to stop their aggressive foreign policy, not to massacre the population and do Nazara's work for it. It would do them no good to exterminate organics and have none to defend from the Great Abominations.

Oravore objections were overcome with covert strikes on far-flung colonies of the Union including slaver bases on their periphery. By leaving no survivors and using stealth frigates and EMP strikes to neutralise communications and weapons, these disappearances at the hands of stealthy Prothean frigates combined with Prothean intelligence passing to Oravore Union intelligence falsified data implicated the Metacon in the attacks on the Union, enraging the bellicose leadership into siding with the Empire. This also spread the Prothean canard that the Metacon attacked civilian colonies, which was mercilessly exploited in Prothean Imperial propaganda. In actuality, most Metacon attacks between the declaration of what the Avatar Conclave called the War against Metastatic Consciousness, shortened to the Metacon War in lay speech, in 17,481 PCE and the end of large scale fighting between the Metacon and the Prothean Empire in 18,515 PCE, were on aggressive military vessels or armed civilian ships firing on them initially. The Metacon strategy of eroding the Protheans' will to fight them largely consisted of aiding resistance of those species being forcibly conscripted into their crusade, while providing limited aid to those species open to receiving it. When allies of the Metacon, such as the zha, committed excesses such as the annihilation of the Zevuton-8 colonists, it reflected negatively on them and strengthened Prothean propaganda about Metacon cruelty to organics. While the Metacon tried to dissuade the worst atrocities, their efforts to establish peace were weakened by the widespread organic preconception of the Metacon as bellicose war machines.

Vandomar resistance was more deeply entrenched, with most of the population distrusting the Empire as much as the Enduromi Hierarchy. With enduromi forces fighting the Metacon alongside the Protheans, the Hierarchy was left weak in vandomar space, where support for fighting the Metacon was weaker than any place outside zha or densorin space. They focused on building their defences on the homeworld and major nearby colonies, telling the Protheans they were preparing to defend against Metacon attacks. The Vandomar Republic lacked the large number of distant colonies the Oravore Union had and were less vulnerable to Avatar Javik's false flag strategy to rope them into the war, and was far more concerned about Hierarchy aggression than the Protheans' war with machines who had posed no threat to the vandomar.

The ditakur were more interested in slaughtering the synril than in allying with the Prothean Empire to solve their machine problem. In 17,481 PCE they were still constructing a massive war armada in secret while their patrols destroyed isolated synril colonies and vessels. This armada took centuries to construct and would later be called the Fleet of Righteous Genocide after its depopulation in 18,182 PCE of the synril homeworld of Kitarilli, killing half of the 12 billion remaining synril. However, the fleet's construction was a secret as much from the Prothean Empire and the Metacon as it was from the synril and the rest of the galaxy. The Prothean Empire hoped to assimilate the synril and strengthen the Empire as a whole, and was likely to sanction the Ditakur Confederacy if it engaged in unjustified exterminations of sapient life. Publicly known estimates of ditakur naval strength typically held they were barely strong enough to hold the small territory they had and unable to launch major offensives.

It was deemed that attempting the same false flag strategy would be less credible with the paranoid ditakur leadership, and alienating them was likewise not sound strategy when so little was known of the ditakur. The Empire retained trade relations, despite the impossibility of a formal alliance. For their part, the Metacon had ceased assistance to the ditakur when their goals moved from defence to destruction and offered aid to the synril, who were more than pacified by that point in their history. The Synril Primacy rejected Metacon arms, though some vessel captains were persuaded to install Metacon shields and enhanced armour on their ships, giving them the same survivability against a ditakur attack as a Metacon cruiser. Only the synril exiles who had rejected the Illumination, now called the Lost by their people, accepted Metacon weapons, ranging from particle rifles to automated sentry drones to, in rarer cases, Metacon combat platforms on board.

Unfortunately, even this aid was sufficient for ditakur leaders to add another abomination to the litany of accusations against the synril - in addition to profaning the ditakur homeworld, killing billions, and spreading their evil religion of coexistence, they had formed an alliance against the ditakur with the Metacon. This implied to the ditakur that any synril transmission, especially ones proposing peace or surrender, would be seen as a potential attempt to upload Metacon code to ditakur ships or systems. It mattered not that the Fleet of Holy Extermination had been destroying synril colonies wherever found, nor that another ditakur armada, the Fleet of Righteous Genocide, was tasked specifically with the destruction of the synril homeworld. Of the three ditakur war armadas, only the Sacred Fleet of Purgation was not subject to Metacon attacks, tasked only with the defence of the ditakur homeworld from other invaders.

XXXXXXXX

In 17,600 PCE the Prothean intelligence vessel Hidden Watcher orbiting Xaech Prime saw what looked like a massive mining operation. This alone would not have rated as worthy of the attention of Imperial Intelligence, but the fact that most of the labourers appeared to not be of any known spacefaring species and were wearing pressure suits which they never removed certainly did so rate. It meant that either someone was giving the primitives advanced technology or was abducting them for use as slaves. The initial suspect was the Oravore Union, which had numerous slaving operations on its outer periphery millennia after being pressured by the Metacon into abolishing slavery in the core territories. However, this was much larger than a typical oravore operation, and there were none of the heavy vehicles or powerful warships that an oravore pirate or slaver lord would possess defending the planet, and its outer perimeter resembled a prison as much as a mining operation.

Prothean special forces deployed from the stealthy intelligence vessel three kilometres from the mining facility's perimeter and approached on foot. They could see the slaves more clearly now. They were short, about half the height of a typical jardaan, and when the Prothean platoon leader Kirali Nalo removed the helmet of one of the slaves to read it, she was horrified when his flesh burst open.

"High-pressure species," Kirali warned her platoon via omnitool. "Do not attempt to remove their suits, they will self destruct. They may have been relocated to a world of insufficient pressure to control them."

The Protheans met no resistance as they moved through the camp. Signs were written in inusannon glyphs, though it was impossible with Kirali's understanding of them to know what language was being represented. Searching for an overseer to capture and interrogate, they found that the overseers, identifiable by the long sticks they carried that delivered powerful electrical charges, were of the same primitive high pressure species.

"Who is in command here?" Kirali asked of an overseer.

The overseer lifted his head and lowered his electric stick. "You want the Warden. She's in the command bunker, past the uranium storage facility."

Kirali's omnitool translator had the alien speaking what it registered as a dialect of the ancient inusannon trade language, which in the Late Imperial period had been largely translated by Prothean historians, though study of it had been heavily restricted lest the truth about the Metacon become popularly known.

The Prothean platoon marched to the command bunker. Six of the squat bipeds were in there, surrounding a taller biped who turned around, revealing the frame and three-lighted visage of a Metacon command unit.

"Vigilant!" Kirali called out to her unit, who took cover immediately, training their weapons on the Metacon.

The Vigilant spoke, its voice feminine but emotionless. "I am Zada Ban, former Admiral of the Inazar Stellar Confederation Navy. I left due to disagreements over policy. They sit on the sidelines while primitive societies destroy themselves, and do nothing to improve those societies lest it interfere with their 'natural progression.' Never mind that their 'natural progression' frequently leads to self-imposed extinction through warfare."

"I didn't know a machine could desert over policy issues," Kirali replied, shouldering her mass accelerator rifle. "Or that a machine needed slaves. I spotted this slaving operation from orbit. We thought it was oravores at first."

Zada Ban barely appeared to register the jardaan female training her weapon on her. "I am a second-iteration Vigilant unit, containing a cloned inazar brain, so while my body possesses an advanced VI suite enabling me to retain and process information, it is still controlled by my organic brain and I possess free will, unlike the fourth and higher iterations my people so foolishly created with AI to bolster their numbers when they became frustrated with the limitations the machines failed to relieve us of, our inability to repopulate our species on its homeworld. This facility is not a slaving operation, as those detestable oravores practice it," she said. "When my ship crashed on Aur II, my body detected immense pressures on their planet. For ninety gigaseconds I toiled to help these people develop agriculture, writing, mathematics, astronomy and diplomacy. Diplomacy was especially difficult, as these primitives are even more bellicose as the ones on Lakhara IV who worship Kalros... the Wam-Shreerth intended for a thoi'han world we accidentally dropped on their planet. I dared not provide them with weapons technology; they would have sterilised their own planet in radioactive fire and no new life could have ever risen again after they annihilated their own species and they never would have lived to face the Great Abominations. Finally, after they figured out how to weld the components I needed back to my ship and restore its functionality, I declared myself the Goddess of Punishment and called for all tribes to send me their murderers, rapists, war criminals, the absolute moral feces of their society. I collected them on the vessel under my command centre and brought them here, where their punishment is life at hard labour to provide the power for the Purifier. Those who show some rehabilitation become overseers. Some of them are even my personal guard." The Vigilant raised an arm, indicating the six squat bipeds holding pulse rifles.

Kirali looked dumbfounded. This went against everything she was taught in the Imperial Citadel Military Academy. The Metacon didn't talk to organics. They certainly did not have anything approximating a sense of justice, however wildly distorted. They most definitely were not thousands of years old, not having attacked a Prothean colony in force until earlier in the 17,000's PCE according to her history book. Her history book only told of two Metacon iterations, but the ones described in it were the fourth and sixth iteration Metacon, full AI. She knew nothing of the earlier preservation modules. A quick omnitool scan revealed the Vigilant was about fourteen thousand years old, too recent to be inusannon but much older than she believed Metacon to be.

"You set yourself up as a god, to punish the guilty, and for what is this Purifier?" she asked, keeping her weapon trained on the Vigilant. If what Zada Ban was telling her was true, the inusannon were evil and created AI to preserve their civilisation after the destruction of their species, and the Protheans were paying the price in blood for their stupidity. She knew not what Great Abominations the Metacon were talking about; while classified bits of information passed the lieutenant's desk occasionally, the only Great Abominations she knew of were the Metacon themselves, including their zha'til allies.

AI or not, the Vigilant was a slaver. While the Prothean Empire also practiced slavery of primitive species, they tended to look down on other powers like the oravores or enduromi practicing it as well if they were not Imperial subjects. The Protheans believed they had the right to own primitive slaves because they were Prothean and favoured by the universe, not just because they had a superior technological base to those they enslaved. Typically a species surrendering its homeworld to the Empire would be spared enslavement and acculturated into Imperial society instead. The Vigilant was using slavery to punish criminals and bring about massive societal changes to the natives of the ammonia rich planet Aur II, as the Protheans had identified the slaves. Sure enough, a search of the Prothean extranet did reveal massive technological and societal changes to the primitives of the high pressure world, such as the development of agriculture, construction technology, and astronomy.

"The Purifier is a weapon of arthenn design," said Zada Ban. "We found its schematics on their homeworld. When linked to the Nexus, it will rewrite the AI of the Nexus and cause the self destruction of the Great Abominations. It will also destroy the mass relay network, but I understand the Empire is currently conducting research on creating mass relays. They believe we created them."

"I was never told the Metacon created the relays," said Kirali.

Zada Ban's optics flashed red and she produced a long titanium blade from her arm and raised it, pointing the blade in the Prothean lieutenant's face. "A term created by the oravores to describe the 'metastatic consciousness' that seized control of the oravore dreadnought Ostrex in 2850 PCE, bringing the slaver Z'Kavnil Tokmasg to densorin justice for his crimes. I am inazar. We did not create the relays either. The Great Abominations did in order to ensure our technological paths followed their plan," she said with a note of anger in her voice.

"My omnitool says you're only a few thousand years old, you were whipped up in a lab thirty or forty thousand years after the inusannon went extinct." Kirali showed no fear with the Vigilant's blade in her face. She did not understand why the Metacon had taken such offence; the Imperial Citadel Military Academy didn't exactly teach her not to use the M-word when speaking to the machines, but Zada Ban was still willing to explain, having expected the Prothean to try to kill her on sight as Protheans typically did. Kirali was slow to trust the machine, but the Vigilant hadn't tried to kill her yet, even if it, or was it she, seemed to have a volatile temper. The machine's voice softened and reverted to its emotionless tone.

"My brain was cloned from the neural tissue of Tigan Ban, an inazar astronomical researcher born in the Nazar year 44,027, which corresponds to 28,000 BPC. Tigan Ban, my genetic mother, was killed in 2800 PCE during a battle between Nazara and four vessels of the Stellar Confederation, which drove the Great Abomination to its current hiding place behind Relay 616. I was cloned from her brain cells once they had proved not to be tainted by Nazara's machinery and placed into this body in 3100 PCE. It was not until 12,300 PCE that I rose from the ranks to Captain and was implanted into this Vigilant body. Second iteration units are mistrusted. We did not experience firsthand the terrors of the Great Abominations, and many of us suffer from mental illness as a result of our infant brains growing in adult sized bodies intended to interface with mature minds."

Kirali burst out laughing. Mental illness was no joke, but the idea that it could affect a machine was amusing to the Prothean. She stopped laughing when Zada Ban grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the wall.

"Tell me why you came here," said the Vigilant, still in an emotionless tone. "Certainly not to mock me in front of my worshippers."

"I came to free the slaves," said Kirali. "To repatriate them to their homeworld and bring them justice."

"Repatriate them?" asked Zada Ban. "The volus are savage, more so than the krogan, oravores or even the yahg. These are the most violent and bloodthirsty of their race. Releasing them now would destroy all I have worked for. The ones on the homeworld are just learning how to conduct diplomacy and trade agreements. The savages will destroy the rudiments of civilisation and kill all the farmers and traders and anyone else literate. I understand how you feel about slavery... possession of slaves was punishable by death in the Stellar Confederation. But by punishing the most savage of their race and using their labour for the Purifier, I aid their race's advancement, culling the savage elements and raising a pacified species. You may destroy our efforts to stop the Great Abominations from destroying your cycle as they did ours, but we will not allow you to condemn the primitives to the same fate."

The Prothean lieutenant failed to see the hypocrisy in asserting the Empire's right to enslave primitives while denying that to other galactic powers. Primitive races were typically inducted into the empire when their science reached a certain level, which exempted that race from enslavement.

"The cosmic imperative dictates the fate of all species," said Kirali. "Others are free to resist our rule. You take away the will to fight of these primitives, so they will not resist our rule and will not strengthen our forces through the punishing fires of war, and will be only placid additions to imperial rule."

"I suppress their violent urges so that they will not destroy themselves before they ever see your ships," Zada Ban replied. "The cosmic imperative is wrong. Or are you saying that species with the potential to become spacefaring should be condemned to extinction before their true potential is ever realised?"

"How can you know their true potential if you continually intervene in their development? And how can the cosmic imperative be wrong? Do you know more than the forces that shaped you?" Kirali demanded.

The Vigilant released Kirali, letting her slump to the floor. "Indeed, I do. I know that I was created by the Stellar Confederation and that the Protheans have perverted the cosmic imperative to justify their imperial rule. The Stellar Confederation supports the right to self determination of all organic species. There is room for only two orders... the intolerance and dogmatism of the Empire... or the freedom and peaceful unity of the Stellar Confederation. But neither path will be possible if the Nexus, which you call the Imperial Citadel, is not destroyed before Nazara can activate its secret mechanism to summon Harbinger's fleet, the rest of the Great Abominations."

"What abominations? More machine monsters?"

"Synthetic constructs. Like us in some ways... partially organic, partially synthetic. In other ways, the more important ones... completely different. They do not seek to increase their knowledge as we do. They have no regard for anything other than the destruction of all space faring life every 1.58 teraseconds. I know this is difficult for you to believe, so I tasked some of my more intelligent slaves with collecting data from our telescopic arrays to prove to them as much as the rest of the galaxy that I speak the truth about the Great Abominations."

Kirali looked at the Vigilant. The machine seemed to believe that the Great Abominations existed and had forced the few surviving inusannon to put their brains into machines, becoming the terrible Metacon. The data the Vigilant uploaded to Kirali's omnitool seemed to be valid, but she was no astronomer or scientist. Zada Ban's information could be useful, and as a defector from the Metacon she could provide invaluable intelligence.

"The law of the Empire is clear - thinking machines must be destroyed. I can try to arrange for leniency in light of your defection and willingness to assist us..."

"I will not help the Empire continue its path of imperialism. I will defend these volus to the end from any effort to intrude on their space. You eat salarian kidneys and livers, fry and boil live hanar, and slaughter other primitive sapients for food or sport. The Prothean Empire is barbaric."

"Says the one who keeps slaves," said Kirali.

By this time, her second in command, Lieutenant Jiras Kamlon, was on the line with Prothean Intelligence. The special forces team had not deployed with EMP weapons for taking on a Vigilant and had only two biotics in the platoon. They had expected to deal with oravore troopers with powerful biotics and heavy assault weapons but little or no tech like what the Metacon had. Starting a battle with the Vigilant could get the entire platoon killed.

Prothean Intelligence told Jiras to lead most of his troops back to the Hidden Watcher, leaving a single engineer and the two biotics, a vanguard and a sentinel, with Lieutenant Kirali. They were the best equipped to deal with the Vigilant should the confrontation become hostile.

"If you allow me to take you into Imperial custody, and the Empire to repatriate the slaves, we can work together against the Great Abominations."

"Your Avatar Conclave will never believe me, as they have shoved every warning we have sent into a classified file none are cleared to see. I would only be condemning the volus to Prothean Imperial rule by surrendering. Guards... escort the Protheans back to their ship."

The volus guards raised their inusannon-made particle rifles. Kirali pulled her sidearm while the engineer set up a turret. The gun chewed through the volus guards, whose bodies burst when punctured, spraying blood and tissue all over the Protheans and Metacon. Zada Ban's shields powered up as she charged at the turret, slashing it with her arm blade until it shut down. The engineer fled to set up another turret while the sentinel overloaded her shields. Zada Ban decapitated the sentinel only to be shot from behind with Kirali's sidearm, loaded with incendiary ammo. The Vigilant charged at Kirali and bowled her over.

The vanguard was pinned down by volus guards, saved only by the engineer's second turret opening fire on the three guards trying to flank the vanguard. He blasted through the other three on the way to the Vigilant to rescue Kirali. The engineer conjured a third turret to target the Vigilant. With the sentinel down, it was up to the engineer to keep the Vigilant's shields low enough that the vanguard could charge and destroy it. Avatar Javik had written the part of the Prothean Imperial Army Field Manual for fighting Metacon, with great detail given to the standard Imperial tactics for defeating a Vigilant - use of an EMP weapon if possible to short the shields, or if an EMP weapon was unavailable, copious amounts of disruptor ammo over a wide area to overwhelm their dodging ability and drain their shields. To destroy an unshielded or weakly shielded Vigilant, the standard offensive tactic was a biotic charge, requiring a vanguard, and followed by a warp or dark channel to destroy the body. If a unit lacked biotics, the next best option was swarming into close quarters from all sides while firing heavy weapons, but this tactic led to high losses, often entire squads. It was a terrible battle, and the engineer was killed and the vanguard and lieutenant badly wounded, but the Protheans managed to defeat the volus goddess of punishment.

Unfortunately, Zada Ban had been correct in her assessment of the Protheans' handling of her information; everything Lieutenant Kirali had obtained was classified at levels she had never even heard of. Fortunately she was wrong about her prisoners. The prisoners on Xaech Prime, which the volus would later rename after their captor, would be repatriated to their homeworld, where they did not devolve into savages. The most warlike of the volus were socially castigated by the other tribes, who had been pacified by the introduction by Zada Ban of the peaceful laws of the Stellar Confederation, and accepted the new world order. 50,000 years later, most volus still bore inusannon sounding names, typically a disyllabic first and monosyllabic last name, and the planet where they had once been enslaved bore the name of the inusannon renegade long after the volus forgot who she actually was. The volus became a peaceful species, just as the inusannon had been. As for the uranium ore the Vigilant and her slaves had excavated, it was given by the Prothean Empire to the volus homeworld as a reparation to their people for the injustices the Empire believed it had righted.

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Avatar Javik himself was assassinated in 17,776 PCE on Varikan, the vandomar homeworld, while visiting that planet to encourage the natives to cooperate with the enduromi for the sake of Imperial unity and victory over the Metacon. The vandomar shooter claimed to be fighting to free his people from both Prothean propaganda and enduromi excesses, and denounced the Empire's demand for military contributions to fight Metacon while the supposed protectorate received no protection from enduromi excesses. The next vandomar elections saw the party opposed to peaceful unification win decisively, and the newly elected Prime Minister swore to prove to the galaxy that the Metacon threat for which the Protheans were uniting the galaxy by fair means or foul to fight was nothing more than a cynical Imperial lie to dominate the galaxy. While it came as a shock to the rest of the galaxy, few vandomar were surprised when the Vandomar Republic Prime Minister Kirathus Nalorn openly swore in 17,805 PCE to 'disprove the Prothean hoax of hostile Metacon' by sending an ambassador into the Tirandi Veil to ally with the Metacon against the Enduromi Hierarchy and Prothean Empire. The Vandomar Ambassador was killed when he exited the Tirandi Veil to return to Varikan by a platoon of assassin mechs when his ship was attacked by Prothean forces, to perpetuate the myth that the Metacon would not engage in diplomatic relations with the rest of the galaxy. The accusation of colluding with Metacon escalated enduromi hostility, leading to the final conquest of Varikan in 18,430 PCE, less than a century before the end of the Metacon War. While vandomar leaders did occasionally request Metacon aid, the Prothean forces by that point in the war had severely weakened the Metacon, who were barely able to defend the zha homeworld, and the Enduromi Hierarchy was well prepared to resist a Metacon incursion that could easily see them left unable to even ensure the survival of the zha, let alone defend the vandomar or synril. Metacon strategists advised vandomar commanders, but against enduromi numbers, let alone Prothean, this merely delayed the inevitable by a few gigaseconds.

In 18,000 PCE, a Metacon dreadnought was sighted for the first time. Prior to this point, all Metacon space engagements had been fought with cruisers, frigates and oculi. The inusannon had never had dreadnoughts, just cruisers, frigates and bulk haulers. This meant that it was a long time before the new dreadnought was positively identified as being a Metacon warship. This dreadnought, Lightbringer-1, crashed on the cold toxic rock of Judor II, with its complement of sixth-iteration Metacon troops aboard. The troops and ship deactivated their AI as the damage prevented the ship from taking off. Thousands of years later, the volus Kumun Shol (male, though the name would have sounded female to an inusannon) and his mercenaries would search for the Metacon warship to use it against the Reapers, the extragalactic entities the Metacon data referred to as the Great Abominations.

In 18,307 PCE, the Fifth Battle of Relay 616 saw the Prothean seizure of the relay and the replacement of the Metacon guard fleet with a Prothean warfleet three times the size the Metacon defence fleet had been. This battle turned the tide of the Metacon War in favour of the Prothean Empire, which discovered after this battle the existence of the more powerful seventh iteration units, upgraded from fourth, fifth and sixth iteration units by the addition of alien code discovered in an artifact found near the Tirandi Veil. Around this time the Oravore Union learned from a tulamorian defector that the Empire had played the Union for dumb fools and the Metacon had nothing to do with the attacks on their colonies, and responded with an asteroid strike against a primitive world the Protheans had begun to uplift. The Metacon attempted to warn the Empire directly in the interests of saving the primitive species, but when this was dismissed by Imperial High Command as an obvious trap, they passed the information through densorin channels, and the Kritarchy succeeded in persuading the Empire to send a stealth ship to avert the asteroid. Unfortunately, it was not enough to persuade the Avatar Conclave to devote serious resources to the Purifier project the Metacon had long ago given the densorin, which was beyond the densorin systems' resources to complete independently.

There was no defined end to the Metacon War, no formal treaty of peace signed before the extinction of the great forces. However, more than a thousand years after the beginning of the Metacon War, the events of 18,515 PCE would force the Prothean Empire to cease attacks on any Metacon forces not directly posing a threat in order to focus on the threat posed by Nazara and Harbinger's fleet, which the Empire came to call Reapers. The Metacon ceased their attacks on Prothean military forces at this point, and much to the surprise of nearly all Prothean war planners, would become an invaluable ally, providing inusannon information about the thoi'han weapon the inusannon called the Purifier, a weapon the thoi'han claimed originated in arthenn technology of circa 180,000 BPC that could destroy the Great Abominations at the cost of shutting down the entire mass relay network. An inusannon cult called the Three Heads had tried to modify the Purifier to hack the Great Abominations, but since most of the cult had been mind warped during the modification process, it had been used to take control of the thoi'han fleet instead, throwing the most powerful warships in the galaxy straight into an ambush. When asked why the Metacon had not given them data on this Purifier weapon before the Metacon War, the Metacon responded that they did, they had been passing information to the Empire for hundreds of gigaseconds covertly through densorin diplomatic channels. In the words of Deharvester-1, the AI commanding the Metacon dreadnought of the same name at the Battle of the Imperial Citadel, "The Purifier is a device of tremendous destructive power. Your merely knowing that we possessed the knowledge of such a device would have only strengthened your efforts to eradicate us. You fear nothing from the densorin, and their willingness to work with us served as the conduit for introduction of our knowledge into the Empire."

XXXXXXXX

47,818 BCE (c. 18,515 PCE)

Nazara sent a probe through the relay near its hiding place, which was quickly destroyed, not by the Metacon fleet that had shown up last time, but by a direct hit from the main cannon of the Penumbra Apex. The Empire must have destroyed the inusannon synthetic troops that had been left behind to interfere with the Prothean harvest by warning the Empire. Foolish organics, destroying in their pride and arrogance the one thing that might have stopped the cycles for fear of synthetic rule. The inusannon had not been the first to try to survive the harvest with machines, but they had been the first to develop militarised stasis pods with multiple VI systems to fight in the next cycle despite the species' generally peaceful disposition.

The Protheans and Metacon had been at war now for over thirty gigaseconds. The forces the Metacon had sought to raise, not against the Empire, but against Nazara and its kind, had been fractured and largely destroyed. The zha, since the war had started over their territory, were at this point nearly extinct due to the lack of Metacon aid, strangled during the course of the war, down to barely over nine thousand pure organics on the planet, and the zha'til constantly persuaded more zha to use the implants to enhance their intelligence, while holdouts insisted on retaining their natural forms. While the zha'til did not force the zha to upgrade, persuasion and desperation had led to all but 9,100 zha using the implants, out of a population of almost nine million.

Prior to Nazara's influence, the zha'til had not sought war with the Empire. Only Nazara's poisonous influence convinced the zha'til to launch attacks on the Empire. Nazara could indoctrinate ordinary zha as it had with Admiral Zan'porovesk to incite the Metacon War, but most zha'til platforms carried Metacon counter-indoctrination software that would rewrite neural patterns disrupted by indoctrination. Nazara could, however, introduce viruses that would sabotage the counter-indoctrination VI, but if they failed they would likely turn the zha'til against Nazara and possibly get it destroyed before it could reach the Nexus, the Imperial Citadel as its current occupiers called it.

Simply by reminding the zha'til that the Prothean Empire had never sought coexistence with them and had attacked them without provocation and that they would never be free as long as the Empire stood, Nazara raised the last remnants of the zha'til forces to assault the Prothean homeworld. By doing this, Nazara ensured there would be a much smaller Prothean force waiting for it at its destination, where it was determined to open the Imperial Citadel to summon Harbinger's fleet, which would assure victory over the organic forces.

However, the forces arrayed at the Citadel were not just Prothean. IPV Penumbra Apex and her escorts were the only Prothean Imperial forces around the Citadel, though on it would be ground forces of Imperial Security and the station's normal defences. A large densorin fleet arrived at the relay by the Imperial Citadel through standard FTL, headed by the M'Stek, the densorin flagship dreadnought upgraded long ago by their Metacon ally. This was unusual, but not worrisome as the Densorin Kritarchy had never attacked the Prothean Empire before and had shared intelligence with the Empire to stop Union attacks on primitives being uplifted by the Empire, most notably warning in 18,310 PCE of an asteroid strike on a planet inhabited by blue bipedal empathic beings resembling the synril superficially but mammalian instead of reptilian, somewhat shorter, and with its male population already nearly extinct as reproduction methods evolved, enabling the Prothean Empire to intervene and destroy the asteroid. As this was late in the Metacon War, and oravore forces were needed by the Empire to defeat the seventh-iteration Metacon units characterised by more militarised heuristics than the AI of the fourth through sixth iterations, the Empire did not retaliate against the Union, but stationed a large fleet to protect the primitives from any aggressor, oravore, Metacon or other.

The Protheans were more worried about the Metacon fleet appearing in the Imperial Citadel's system, expecting them to fire upon the Prothean, densorin and oravore fleets any second. A warning message appeared on all Citadel computers. This was not the standard emergency broadcast system used by the Prothean Empire, but a warning from the Metacon that the time had passed for trying to destroy the Citadel and that Nazara would soon arrive to signal the Citadel to close its arms and activate its relay to summon Harbinger's fleet.

For the first time in recorded history, Prothean and Metacon forces fought as cobelligerents if not allies. It was not an easy alliance; Prothean commanders used to centuries of war with the Metacon had difficulty refraining from attacks on the vessels that were relentlessly firing on the colossal dreadnought. The Metacon, for their part, were aware that when the Protheans believed they could defeat them, they attacked one hundred times out of one hundred.


	7. Chapter 6: Ravaging Reapers

A/N: Finally, the last (and longest) chapter! Prothean stubborn arrogance and the efforts of the Metacon to end the cycles. Prothy and his crew and the fate of the Prothean Reaper. Prothean and Human Battles of the Citadel.

18,515 PCE (47,818 BCE)

Imperial Citadel

The Metacon had attacked the Imperial Citadel three times during the war, in 17,550 PCE, 17,830 PCE, and 18,390 PCE. During the 18,390 PCE attack, the Protheans detected a virus - not the computer viruses the Metacon often employed against hostile warships, but an actual biological virus, on the Citadel. Surprisingly to the Protheans, the virus did not harm any known sapient species on the Citadel, piquing curiosity about what exactly the Metacon had been hoping to accomplish... until the virus incubated in the keepers, causing all but a few hundred of the billions of keepers to die. The surviving keepers cleaned the remains of their dead, but functions of the Citadel slowed to a crawl and many emigrated from it as conditions deteriorated. This situation lasted for decades before the Citadel could produce enough keepers to keep it running, but the new ones bore the same DNA changes as those that had survived the virus. As the virus did not interfere with the keepers' ability to clean the station once their numbers had been built, nor pose a threat to other species, the Prothean Imperial government saw no need to sterilise the station and had brought convict labour to maintain the station until the keeper population restabilised in 18,465 PCE. Fifty Prothean years later, the Citadel forces felt confident they could hold off another Metacon attack.

Citizens of a dozen different sapient species milled about the many shops and businesses on the giant space station, still widely believed to be an inusannon construct despite the discovery of ancient inusannon archives that revealed that they had discovered the Nexus, as they had called it, in 54,000 BPC, during their war with the thoi'han, and the space station had already been ancient then. They had no idea of what was to come. There was widespread confusion as while the Metacon warning had been sent, few believed it and fewer still were willing to say so in Prothean space.

Nazara's appearance under zha'til escort did not even convince the Avatars that this was not just another Metacon attack. The zha'til had, after all, been a long standing ally of the Metacon and were perfectly capable of constructing a ship like Nazara with Metacon aid. Prothean naval officers who did attempt to persuade the Avatar Conclave that Nazara was not a Metacon ship despite being named for the native name of the inusannon homeworld and Metacon forces identifying with the Stellar Confederation were typically demoted and reassigned to backwaters if not killed for treason or incompetence. Those who pointed out that the Metacon, if the machines did not have feelings to fear Nazara, at least prioritised its capture or destruction over curbing Prothean expansion, were told that made Nazara a potential tool. Not an ally, it too was a machine, but a tool that could be exploited against the Metacon and discarded when the Great Abomination outlived its usefulness.

The presence of a large oravore fleet and a smaller densorin fleet with several dreadnoughts between them and hundreds of smaller craft only suggested to the Protheans that this Metacon attack would be bigger than ever. The Protheans had never known the densorin to work with the oravores or to fight Metacon, but the densorin military was the smallest in the galaxy and what was known of its military history only documented border clashes and skirmishes with the oravores. The advanced nature of densorin military technology meant it did not need a large force and the densorin fleet appeared to be roughly half the Densorin Kritarchy Navy's estimated strength. It was also the only thing that protected the Kritarchy from being absorbed into the Empire when suspicion of Metacon collusion spread, meaning the densorin leadership was taking a huge risk by sending half its fleet to the Citadel and appearing openly alongside Metacon forces. By 18,450 PCE the Empire had consolidated control of enduromi and ditakur space, including conquered vandomar and synril space, and was at war with the oravores, a war that was still ongoing in 18,515 PCE. They were, however, unable to find any remaining synril colonies to induct into the Empire. If the oravores were here to fight the Protheans, their inaction might have as much to do with the densorin fleet as waiting to see what the Metacon would do before committing to action. The oravores were untrusting of both sides; the Protheans had made incursions on oravore territory periodically for thousands of years, only getting worse after the Metacon War led to the Protheans belligerently demanding the aid of the galaxy at large to defeat the Metacon and their zha'til allies and aggressively destroying AI in any form. While the Metacon offered protection from Prothean attacks, they also opposed oravore aggression against the densorin and had thus also been a containing force toward the Oravore Union.

The battle began when Nazara, escorted by a zha'til fleet of twelve cruisers, eight zha'til weapon platforms, and one hundred eight frigates, approached the Citadel, guarded by the Prothean First Fleet flagged by IPV Penumbra Apex under command of the Avatar of Strength Konar Veran. The Metacon sent warning of the attack via the Ambassador from the Densorin Kritarchy, J'Nakos V'Tral, and under the Ambassador's warning a densorin fleet of two dreadnoughts, eight cruisers and twenty frigates under Admiral V'Jaros Z'Ktal to aid the Protheans. The Oravore Union, also warned, sent ninety warships under Admiral K'Raktus Vornasg, though the oravore leadership, uncertain of the severity of the threat, did not want to risk one of their more seasoned commanders and sent a more cautious officer who did not want the Union roped into more Imperial shenanigans like the false flag that had gotten them into the Metacon War.

The zha'til cruisers and weapon platforms were merely shock troops to land flying swarms and war droids on the Citadel. Zha'til war droids were five-metre tall monstrosities with fighter-grade shielding and carrying heavy machine guns and rocket launchers as well as dispatching flying swarms, which shot paralytic darts capable of penetrating heavy battle armour. Nazara's corrupted zha'til swarms paralysed their victims to be collected by zha'til war droids and loaded onto dropships for transport to Nazara. The frigates were just to keep the Prothean fleet occupied long enough for Nazara to signal the Keepers to open the Nexus. IPV Penumbra Apex, the most powerful warship in the Imperial Prothean Navy, was tasked with retrieving the other Avatars from the Citadel and making sure they were not abducted.

A Metacon fleet commanded by the AI Deharvester-1, also the name of its command dreadnought was on the way as well, not part of Nazara's fleet, but hurrying to intercept before Nazara could take over the relays. Half again the size of Nazara with a magnetohydrodynamic weapon to match, and escorted by ten cruisers and forty frigates, the enormous Metacon leviathan was tasked with stopping Nazara at all costs.

XXXXXXXX

To Corporal Vokaris Natanor, a tulamorian soldier in the Imperial Prothean Marine First Legion tasked with defending the Imperial Citadel against threats, it began like any other day. He woke from his barracks, donned his armour, reported for duty, and mentally prepared for another thirty kiloseconds of guard duty. This mostly consisted of patrolling a stretch of the Citadel and ensuring the fireteam under his charge acted according to standards of Prothean military discipline. Discipline was not a serious problem; his fire team, despite their lack of experience in actual combat, were well trained and followed security protocols rigidly.

It was surprising to Natanor and his fireteam of five others; Vanokato, a vank'sher male technical expert, Z'Kav'Ti, a ditakur female offensive biotic and rifle trooper, R'Vakna Yirlesg, an oravore female medic and defensive biotic, Raval Ktal, a jardaan male sniper, and Fliv'talovek, a zha female heavy weapons specialist, when zha'til swarms attacked the Citadel, the first combat the diverse squad of six soldiers of different species had seen. They had all made it through the first zha'til swarm without any casualties, and had just finished reloading their weapons and checking their armour when a zha'til cruiser dropped several war droids.

Fliv'talovek fired a bizarre zha cannon-like weapon that dispatched drone swarms similar to the paralysing swarms of the zha'til, lacking their AI but carrying in its place a virus tailored for use against AI. While this weapon could disable zha'til troopers for capture, in Prothean use the experimental weapon was typically fitted with explosives to destroy rather than capture. The zha'til war droid exploded, spraying fire and debris.

"We have to get to the Summit of the Avatars to warn them to flee!" said Natanor, firing his assault rifle and downing a zha'til flying swarm.

The squad fought their way down the wide avenues of the Upper Citadel, battling zha'til drones along the way. Yirlesg activated a biotic barrier to shield her squad while Raval's sniper rifle and Z'Kav'Ti's shockwaves and flares slaughtered zha'til in their paths. A large force of zha'til troops blocked the entrance to the Summit of the Avatars, where a platoon of Prothean Marines were fighting tooth and claw to hold them back from where the Avatars were bunkered.

"Vanokato, I need prox mines laid along every path the zha'til can take to us. Raval, I'll need sniper support to help Vanokato lay his prox mines. Z'Kav'Ti, I'll need you with me trying to break through the zha'til war droids holding the path to the Summit of the Avatars. Yirlesg, stand back and provide barriers until you are needed to aid the wounded, at that point let us know and I'll have Fliv'talovek shoot off some more swarms."

The ditakur soldier joined her corporal and between the two of them they destroyed seven zha'til war droids with their assault rifles and the ditakur's biotics. Biotics were very rare among the ditakur; they had not been found until after the ditakur began reverse engineering synril technology and become exposed to element zero. Mutated ditakur babies as a result of element zero exposure had served as yet another rallying cry, yet another charge against the synril of atrocities against the ditakur. Z'Kav'Ti considered her biotics a gift from the synril and left Confederacy space in opposition to her people's extermination against the synril, joining the Imperial Prothean Marines. To her squadmates, she was proof that not all ditakur were murderous fanatics. To her superiors, she was proof the ditakur would make a fine addition to the Empire once their more brutal tendencies were harnessed and controlled.

"More zha'til!" Raval warned over the comm as his sniper rifle destroyed another zha'til war droid. His next shot struck a zha'til dropship, killing the pilot and crashing the ship but doing nothing to damage the dozen zha'til war droids inside it, which immediately opened fire on the squad.

"Get down!" said Corporal Natanor. His squad took cover wherever they could, with well-placed sniper fire and heavy weapons shots continuing to destroy or damage zha'til war droids, but they kept coming.

"Shit! Where's the rest of the army?" asked Fliv'talovek, firing off another burst of exploding drones.

"Trying to clear a path to the docking bays for civilians to flee," replied Natanor. "We're on our own until we get to the Summit."

"How are we going to get through while we're pinned down like this?" asked Raval as his sniper rifle took down the closest zha'til war droid.

"I'll see if we can't get us some backup," Natanor said, opening his omni-tool. "This is Corporal Vokaris Natanor of the First Prothean Marine Legion. We are pinned down outside the tower leading to the Summit of the Avatars, require immediate fire support."

Fire support came from the Avatars themselves, raining biotic attacks down from the Summit on top of the zha'til war droids. As they turned to fire at the new targets, Z'Kav'Ti used her biotics and Fliv'talovek fired off her heavy weapon again. The team then charged into the tower, liberating the Avatars and their guard platoon, who joined the team. Unfortunately, this made them the single largest concentration of Prothean forces on the Upper Citadel, meaning their trip out of there was going to be much more complicated. No sooner had Natanor's squad with their Avatar escort exited the tower than they were set upon by a whole company of zha'til war droids.

"Heavy weapon depleted," said Fliv'talovek, futilely trying to fire her weapon on the huge enemy force.

Vanokato's parnaps glowed crimson, indicative of fear. While like all vank'sher in the Prothean military he had a vocal processor in his armour, he rarely spoke when his parnaps could do the talking. He clutched his pistol in one hand and carried an automated turret in the other, and looked up.

"Oculi!" A wave of Oculi came down behind the zha'til war droids. Natanor uttered a prayer to the tulamorian war god Vonar, and the zha'til war droids exploded in a bright flash of destruction. The Oculi pulled back and held position.

"What was that? Vanokato, did you hack them?"

"No, Corporal," the vank'sher technical expert replied, his parnaps glowing dark green. "They fired on the advancing war droids and are holding position."

"We should destroy them," said Raval. "My sniper rifle can take out an Oculus."

Natanor nodded. Raval fired his sniper rifle and destroyed one of the six Oculi. The other five retreated without returning fire.

"Strange..." said Raval. "I expected them to attack us."

Z'Kav'Ti nodded. "It seems our enemies are busy fighting each other. We must get the Avatars to the docking bay."

The squad and their escorts took the elevators to the floor with the docking bay. This one was even more full of zha'til war droids and oculi, and for the first time Natanor's squad observed two groups of oculi firing on one another. This could be chalked up to interference from IPV Penumbra Apex screwing with the oculi's IFF systems, but it could not explain what they saw on the pathway leading to the docking bay.

A lone black bipedal figure surrounded by dozens of zha'til war droids drew a blade and charged straight into a zha'til droid, its blade neatly severing the leg and bringing the colossus to the ground. The other zha'til fired on the black figure with missiles and heavy machine guns, and the figure dodged and weaved around the larger and heavier droids, severing electrical and signal connections with its blade and setting up turrets to fire on the zha'til droids... turrets the Prothean squad recognised as Metacon turrets. The force of zha'til war droids was too large for the squad to fight even with the Avatars and their guards as backup, and besides, the squad needed to get the Avatars to the docking bay alive, not get them killed bluntly attacking the zha'til force. The Protheans' own defence turrets set up by Vanokato did more damage to the war droids than expected, as if their targeting routines were being augmented by an ally with tremendous processing power. Vanokato could not believe his scanner's results when he tracked the reason for their upgraded accuracy - the jardaan-sized black figure, still too distant to clearly identify, was assisting the Protheans' targeting as well as the Metacon turrets. His parnaps glowed bright green in confusion. The figure seemed to be doing something on an omnitool and one of the zha'til war droids fired on its allies for about thirty seconds before reasserting control of itself and closing in melee, having depleted its ammunition and taken down four of the other droids. The figure stepped aside and fired a sharpened projectile from its arm into an exposed electrical cable and disabled the droid.

Raval used the scope of his sniper rifle to observe the war droids. They had taken no notice of the squad yet, focusing exclusively on the black figure that seemed to be quite surprisingly holding its own against at least thirty war droids, striking their weak points and apparently being shielded as well as or better than the droids. Raval sniped the war droid closest to the docking bay in a joint, bringing the towering behemoth down, and moved to another position to find another target, shooting another war droid in the back and luring it into the lines of fire of a Prothean and a Metacon turret. The war droids now noticed the squad. He scoped out the black figure that was slaughtering the zha'til war droids and rubbed his four eyes in disbelief at the identity of his ally.

The Metacon Vigilant felled the last of the zha'til war droids and walked up to the squad. "Corporal Natanor. VKM-7733, seventh-iteration Vigilant unit," it said impassively.

Natanor was almost as surprised as Raval. "Why are you helping us?"

"Because the Great Abominations will destroy us as surely as they will destroy you," VKM-7733 replied in its mechanised monotone. "We have warned your government of our destruction and the impending destruction of their civilisation. Our warnings that the Great Abominations were coming were not heeded, regardless of the astronomical and historical data we provided as proof. This leads us to intervening directly to ensure that the Great Abominations do not seize control of this station."

"Did you have anything to do with the oculi that saved us at the Summit of the Avatars?" asked Z'Kav'Ti.

The Vigilant's three circular optics in triangular formation on its head went light blue. "Negative, but I am aware of the engagement you reference. Those Oculi are forces of the Stellar Confederation, engaged in combat with those of Nazara, the vanguard of the Great Abominations. We oppose the Great Abominations, and are here to ensure that the Keepers do not open this station upon Nazara's command."

"Why betray the zha'til in battle while they launch a major offensive against the Prothean Empire?" asked Natanor. "They have been your allies for millennia."

"We have betrayed nobody," the Vigilant replied. "The Stellar Confederation's treaties of mutual defence do not obligate us to assist wars of aggression. Our alliance does obligate us to defend the zha from the Great Abominations. Nazara infiltrated Khaanra's defence network, and has seized control of most zha'til. The ones who have not been compromised are defending Khaanra from Nazara's thralls with the aid of our forces. Nazara's escort is composed of zha thralls who seek to continue the cycle. The Stellar Confederation respects the self determination of all peoples. The Great Abominations oppose self determination for any peoples and seek to force all organics and synthetics to follow their path and become machines under their thrall and serve their harvests and their cycle. We seek the freedom of all peoples to choose their path, and do not seek to impose our path on others."

"That's hard to believe, with you attacking Prothean expansion at every turn, arming every species seeking to resist our rule, and helping the zha eradicate us... and wasn't Nazara a M... um, one of your forces' ships?" said Corporal Natanor, catching himself from using the M-word to a machine he had just seen disable multiple zha'til war droids several times larger than itself.

"I'm standing right here," said Fliv'talovek.

"The zha do not seek to eradicate the Protheans," said the Vigilant. "Only to secure enough living space for their population. Nazara is not a Stellar Confederation ship or joint construct with the Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha, as has been alleged in Imperial propaganda. The Great Abomination Nazara was created from the uploaded minds and liquefied bodies of nearly four point three billion of our creators' species, amalgamated and corrupted into the abomination that now threatens us all, organic or synthetic. It promised the zha vengeance upon the Prothean Empire, without telling them this would pave the way for the Great Abominations. The desired retribution would leave the galaxy far weaker to resist their invasion. The heretic zha'til asked Nazara to give them their path. The Stellar Confederation and its allies make their own paths. Prothean Imperial rule entails anti-synthetic propaganda that complicates our efforts to prepare the galaxy against the Great Abominations. We have wasted enough time. I will lead you to the docking bay." The Vigilant picked up two heavy machine guns from a fallen zha'til war droid and threw one to Fliv'talovek. "Your heavy weapon is depleted. This will help you reach your objective."

The zha soldier caught the weapon and held it effortlessly, aided by her powered armour. "Thanks for looking out," she said, as she would have to an organic soldier. "I'll watch your back this time."

"That will not be necessary," the Metacon replied. "I do not expect to survive this battle. I only expect to stop the Keepers from activating the Nexus as long as my platform remains functional."

The squad knew their way to the docking bay, but followed the Vigilant, which stopped just before the docking bay, firing the heavy weapon it had captured at enemy Oculi attacking docked ships. The squad and Avatars rushed toward IPV Penumbra Apex despite it showing signs of battle damage, Fliv'talovek also firing the zha'til weapon given to her by the Vigilant. The squad did not dare to tell the Avatar of Strength that they had not only encountered the most powerful and feared of Metacon ground units and lived to tell the tale, but that the Metacon had saved their lives... for now.

XXXXXXXX

No sooner had IPV Penumbra Apex taken off with the Avatars aboard did Nazara's fleet attack it, Nazara itself heading for the Nexus to signal the Keepers to open it for Harbinger's fleet. The Metacon had arrived in force by now, with a massive command dreadnought called Deharvester-1 and a small contingent of cruisers and frigates as escorts. Deharvester-1 had deployed its Oculi over the Citadel to provide air support to Prothean forces with mixed results, sometimes helping local units to tactical victory over the zha'til, at other times getting its own Oculi killed by the Protheans they were trying to help while doing battle with Nazara's Oculi. To the surprise of the crew of Penumbra Apex, Deharvester-1 also provided covering fire to the Prothean dreadnought as it took off, neutralising several incoming zha'til weapon platforms, before moving to confront Nazara. The Metacon dreadnought then erected a powerful jamming field to prevent Nazara from signaling the Keepers.

"Kinetic shields down to thirteen percent!" said a tactical officer aboard Penumbra Apex. The Prothean flagship had taken a pounding from the zha'til while getting the Avatars aboard and off the Citadel.

Another shot from Penumbra Apex's main cannon followed, this one making a small hole, then a broadside as the Prothean warship attempted evasive manoeuvres, taking another hit from the cannon.

"Kinetic shields at four percent. Metacon dreadnought port side!" said a weapons officer. Deharvester-1 had moved around Nazara, placing itself between the enemy and the Prothean flagship, and powered its weapons.

"The Empire will endure," said Avatar Konar. Every jardaan on the ship could read his terror. They were doomed.

Deharvester-1 locked on and fired its main cannon... blasting a massive hole in Nazara's port side. Thousands of zha husks and oculi were sucked out into space. Nazara changed targets from Penumbra Apex and concentrated its fire on the Metacon warship, the two engaging with cannons and oculi. The Metacon dreadnought boosted its shield output, extending its shields over the damaged Prothean flagship to allow time for the Prothean dreadnought to recharge its own shields, and closed in with Nazara so that its airlock was over the hull breach. Deharvester-1 then disembarked a large force of Vigilants inside of Nazara to attempt to take control of the Great Abomination long enough to download the individual consciousnesses of billions stored within.

"Am I going insane?" asked the Avatar of Strength in disbelief. "Or is the Metacon dreadnought helping us?" Deharvester-1 was closing in with Nazara; the Metacon ship moved its airlock right over the hull breach it made in Nazara.

"I don't know its intentions, Honoured Avatar, but we should flee before the Metacon finish Nazara and decide to kill us all." said the tactical officer. At this point, a communication came over to Penumbra Apex, on the one channel not blocked by the jamming signal, the Prothean Imperial Navy emergency frequency.

"This is Deharvester-1, the AI commanding the dreadnought covering you. We have incapacitated Nazara for now, are jamming its communications and have disembarked infantry boarding forces to attempt to keep it incapacitated while we find a way to shut it down. If it signals the Nexus, the relay network will shut down and Harbinger's fleet will come through the Nexus and destroy you as they did the Stellar Confederation."

"Why should I believe the word of a Metacon AI?" asked the Avatar of Strength.

"Because the 'Metacon'," the AI emphasised its reclamation of the M-word, "as your people say, have just saved your little green cloacae. As a show of good faith, we will transmit to you our data on how to construct magnetohydrodynamic weapons like those of Nazara and our own forces, footage of our harvest, our library of counter-indoctrination medical interventions, VI and AI, and the complete schematics of the Purifier weapon of the thoi'han. We also wish to deploy a battalion of Vigilant units to minimise loss of civilian life and stop the Keepers."

The Avatar's four eyes widened, as if they were about to come out of his head, while his eight irises dilated to the point of having only four hourglass shaped ones. One seventh-iteration Vigilant unit was capable of inflicting heavy losses on a Prothean infantry platoon, and after capture, reactivating itself and hijacking a Prothean frigate. Everyone in the Prothean military, even if the details were heavily classified, knew that Vigilant-class command and control units were extremely dangerous even when unarmed, especially seventh-iteration units now suspected to have been upgraded by the very Great Abominations the Metacon opposed. Deharvester-1 wanted to turn more than a thousand of the juggernauts loose on the Citadel.

"Your idea of good faith... is to let... Metacon fucking VIGILANTS... loose on the Imperial Citadel?" Avatar Konar asked incredulously.

"Honoured Avatar," said the executive officer, Commander Vilani Kotan. "With respect, IPV Penumbra Apex cannot hope to defeat Nazara by itself. The densorin fleet seem to be holding their own against the zha'til, but the oravore fleet is holding at the relay. We still do not know their intentions, and are not even certain the oravores themselves know what they will do. They may be observing the battle in order to determine which side to support, or simply be blocking the relay to cut off either our retreat or that of the Metacon."

"Once Nazara falls, Penumbra Apex will be just as vulnerable to the Metacon dreadnought, and if we use its plan, on top of it all, the Citadel will be full of Vigilants," the Avatar exploded. "Does anyone else on this ship have a problem?"

Jacun Valik, Avatar of Bravery, spoke up. "The zha'til war droids which blocked our exit from the Summit of the Avatars were destroyed by Oculi, though I know not whether they were the Oculi of Nazara or of the Metacon... Deharvester-1. I am leaning toward the Metacon, as we encountered another party of zha'til war droids, and they were trying to take down a Vigilant. The Vigilant spoke to us after the battle. It... said that Nazara is an abomination harvested from the inusannon that wants to harvest our people and make an abomination like itself, and that the Metacon are trying to stop Nazara from taking over the Citadel."

Nazara amplified its signal to try to burn through the Metacon warship's jamming. That was its only hope for survival, to summon Harbinger to get Deharvester-1 off it before Nazara got blown up. Besides, what would happen to the harvests if Nazara was destroyed by the Metacon before opening the Nexus? Deharvester-1 had sent thousands of Metacon troops into Nazara to capture it, mostly Vigilants. It was rare for the valuable and notoriously lethal command and control units to be deployed in such numbers without supporting larger numbers of weaker Metacon units, but their superior processing power over normal troopers made them ideal for this mission. It also meant that the forces Deharvester-1 had available to deploy to the Citadel were largely Vigilants as well, the ones not essential to seizing Nazara being available to help the Protheans defend the Citadel. Deharvester-1's weapons had disabled Nazara's EMP generators normally used for purging large forces of synthetic boarders, at least until the Great Abomination could repair it. By then, the Metacon AI hoped that its troops could download the individual DNA profiles and consciousnesses that had been amalgamated into the abomination's mind and free them from whatever was controlling Nazara.

"We are having difficulty maintaining the jamming. Nazara is amplifying its signal. The Nexus must be evacuated and destroyed," said Deharvester-1.

"Send your Vigilants. You will not deceive us." Avatar Konar replied, resigned to the idea that the Metacon were going to launch another assault on the Imperial Citadel. "And may Labeil have mercy on us all," he said, referencing a mythological jardaan god of justice.

"Confirmed," Deharvester-1 responded in its mechanised voice. "Vigilant forces deployed to docking bays and the Summit of the Avatars. Warning: Hostile zha'til forces on the Citadel killing and abducting organics. Large numbers of civilians are attempting to flee aboard any vessel they can reach. Prothean military forces are currently holding the Lower Wards against zha'til incursions, but the Upper Citadel is occupied by enemy zha'til."

"I thought the zha'til were your allies," replied Konar.

"The Technocratic Federated Peoples of the Zha have an alliance with the Stellar Confederation dating to 3250 PCE. The zha'til, zha hybrids, are a product of this alliance, but not in the way you might think. They already had VI technology when we made contact, which they combined with features of our preservation modules. The zha were not hostile to the Prothean Empire until Nazara warped the minds of the zha admirals. Another zha'til strike force is prepared to assault the jardaan homeworld of V'Khar. Khaanra itself is nearly unpopulated. We believe that the zha disabled the safety protocols in the technology we gave them to prevent the VIs in the implants from becoming AI capable of seizing the physical body and rewriting it, to make themselves more intelligent than the technology allowed, perhaps believing they could control it without our safety features. Most likely a victim of the mind warp or someone convinced by a victim of the mind warp. Either way, they are under the control of Nazara now. Those zha'til not under the control of the Great Abomination are currently protecting the few remaining organics on Khaanra and seeking a way to free the rest of their people. The alliance between the Stellar Confederation and the Technocratic Federated Peoples obliges us to aid in their defence against the Great Abominations."

"We must focus on destroying Nazara," said the Avatar of Strength.

At this, Deharvester-1's attitude changed.

"That Great Abomination has our people on board," said the Metacon AI, in a tone that conveyed anger, though not directed toward the Prothean. None on IPV Penumbra Apex had actually seen a Metacon AI apparently get angry. "The Great Abomination uploads the minds of those it harvested to its central processing unit and mixed the data together to create its own mind. A Vigilant battalion, not unlike the one now defending your Citadel, is aboard Nazara looking for a means to separate the billions of consciousnesses from one another, to free those of our people who have been harvested to form the Great Abomination."

"Now I know why you call yourself Deharvester," said the Avatar. "What is your plan, once you have them freed?"

"Upload their minds to our dreadnought, then destroy the Great Abomination," the Metacon replied. "The Stellar Confederation has a moral obligation to those of its people captured by the enemy."

"Your people's minds have been on that abomination for upwards of a terasecond and a half. If there was anything left to save, would not Nazara have surrendered to your forces, especially with your killing machines running through its insides?"

"We understand that the Great Abomination amalgamates the consciousnesses of the harvested into a single gestalt whole. Homogenisation is gradual, but unpredictable. It can take megaseconds or teraseconds. It greatly complicates the recovery of individual components, meaning that if homogenisation is complete we may not have time to free our people before Nazara must be destroyed to prevent it from signaling the Nexus to allow Harbinger's fleet to return. This unified consciousness is then subjected to programming by Harbinger to cause it to serve the will of the Catalyst, the AI which governs the Relay Nexus. We do not fully understand it ourselves, but we hope that we can master the workings of the Great Abomination to free our people and all others who were grown only to be harvested. The Stellar Confederation does not leave anyone behind."

The Avatar of Strength looked at the visage on the bridge's view screen. "That abomination is harvesting our people to make another one like Nazara?"

"Affirmative," Deharvester-1 replied. "The Stellar Confederation does not intend to allow that to happen. Vigilant units have secured the Summit of the Avatars and are patrolling the Keeper tunnels to block their access should Nazara succeed in transmitting its signal. They are also clearing out large areas of the Upper Citadel with air support from our Oculi. Most of Nazara's reserve oculi were vented into space when we fired our main cannon on it, and Nazara is now expending considerable power to prevent our Vigilant units there from attaining their primary objective of retrieving our people."

"We are receiving a transmission from the Imperial Citadel," said Avatar Konar.

"This is Acting General Kinalis Voran," said a female voice on a Prothean naval transmission. "We finally managed to repair communications equipment, but General Rakix and most of his staff are KIA. We were cornered and under attack by zha'til, then... I still can't believe what happened, and don't know if I was hallucinating, but..."

"Out with it, soldier!" the Avatar barked.

"We were cornered by two or three dozen zha'til war droids and about a hundred of their flying drones. My rifle had just overheated, and I was pinned to the wall by a zha'til war droid, and then someone came up on the droid from behind and destroyed it. I thought it was one of my soldiers until it spoke, telling me the Avatars were safe and that we needed to evacuate. I looked up at the head and those three optics looked at me and it was a Vigilant! I thought for sure it was going to kill me, my weapon had just cooled down and I'd drained my biotics fighting the zha'til and keeping as many people in the Lower Wards alive as I could. One of my men shot at the Vigilant with an assault rifle with disruptor ammo and a tracking mod, about the only thing they can't dodge short of a wide-area EMP, and the Vigilant just retreated to where two or three other Metacon were standing. Didn't try to kill the shooter or anything. They had destroyed all the zha'til drones in this part of the Citadel. I had to confirm what the Vigilant said about the Avatars being safe, you know I'd never trust a Metacon, but this one saved my life and probably the lives of our few surviving commanders."

"I believe you, General Kinalis," said the Avatar. "Deharvester-1 is providing electromagnetic countermeasure support to prevent Nazara from calling in reinforcements, and extended its shields to save Penumbra Apex from Nazara's fire. I still do not trust the machines. They have a long history of opposing Imperial expansion, as well as attacking the Citadel to sabotage it. This may all be a ploy, so be vigilant... bad pun."

Kinalis seemed relieved. "I'm receiving communications from Imperial Citadel Security. They had reported a zha'til assault beginning six kiloseconds ago and they were reporting heavy casualties and much of the security headquarters being occupied by zha'til, and now are reporting that Metacon troops are turning the tide. The remaining Prothean forces there are pushing back against the zha'til. Metacon forces are also destroying large numbers of Keepers, although Nazara and the zha'til are their priorities. IC-SEC also reports that civilians have contacted them about Metacon units offering to escort them off the station. Strangely, the Metacon here are not returning fire when our soldiers engage them. They seem focused on the war droids and Keepers."

XXXXXXXX

The winding pathways on Nazara's frame would have confused any organic and left them prey to its insidious mind altering properties, but the Metacon heavy infantry moving through its body were immune to it. With their advanced shielding, far more powerful than the first iteration units that had sought to infiltrate it in 2800 PCE, they could also resist most of Nazara's other countermeasures. Most of the husks and oculi had been vented into space, so the Vigilants on Nazara met little resistance on the way to the CPU core. It was rare for the Metacon to deploy the powerful command and control units in large numbers, but their processing power was necessary for this operation to even have a chance.

What the Metacon found in Nazara's CPU core had serious implications for the long-term goals of their forces. Not only was the code for billions of minds split into millions of pieces each and put together in a manner appearing completely random, but the Great Abominations' CPU cores were so heavily encrypted that even with the Metacon's full processing power even combined with those of their allies and potential Prothean allies, by the time the Metacon broke through, the cycle would have continued for dozens more iterations. While Deharvester-1 could easily download the yottabytes upon yottabytes of data from Nazara's CPU core, the Metacon would still be looking at petaseconds before they could even begin to de-harvest their population. Complete homogenisation of the personalities only added more time to the de-harvesting timetable.

Deharvester-1's plans would only be further extended by the addition of future harvest cycles. The Metacon had no intention of allowing the cycle to continue, but consensus was required to determine their next move. Priority had to be determined between two goals in potential conflict. The Metacon had been created to unite the galaxy to destroy the Great Abominations before they could continue the next cycle, but if at all possible they were to capture Nazara for the purpose of freeing the billions of minds from it, which would not only destroy the Great Abomination but save billions of lives and create formidable allies. Now, Nazara was too dangerous to let live long enough for the forces of the Stellar Confederation to save the largest concentration of their remaining people. The Metacon would gain nothing from saving their people if by doing so Nazara lived to signal the Keepers to open the Nexus to wipe them out again. The loss of the harvested would be an aversive stimulus to the Metacon, the closest their AI got to pain, but Deharvester-1 would still have a purpose in preventing the Prothean harvest, toward which end the Metacon also seized Nazara's IFF, which would have to be replaced by Harbinger before it could return to its hidey-hole. Downloading the homogenised CPU core to Deharvester's systems in encrypted form in hope of one day saving the victims was a possibility, but until the Metacon knew more about the code binding Nazara to Harbinger's will, it was judged too dangerous to risk uploading to a Metacon dreadnought, just as the Prothean Empire would consider a Metacon Vigilant too dangerous to bring aboard a ship. With the material encrypted, the whole core would have to be uploaded to avoid leaving out consciousnesses but carried an inherent risk of bringing Nazara's control modules with the minds to be saved and assuming control of the Metacon ship.

The Metacon AI Deharvester-1 ordered the remaining Vigilants off of Nazara after uploading a virus to attempt to force Nazara's CPU to decrypt and upload its code to an extremely large inusannon data cube as a final contingency attempt to save the species without risking infecting Deharvester-1 with Great Abomination code. Metacon warships still used the ancient technology for saving data, though typically much larger than the older versions. These Vigilants were re-tasked to supporting the defence of the Citadel. Arriving in Metacon frigates and oculi, they were most often regarded as objects of terror to the civilians they were tasked with protecting, who for the most part had only seen Vigilants in news vids of the war showing them killing Prothean soldiers in large numbers, sometimes doctored by censors to portray the Metacon as ruthless killing machines. Their arrival often induced or exacerbated panic among the populace.

Civilians fleeing the Metacon often ran into zha'til drones which abducted them. Those fleeing zha'til forces finding Metacon in their paths were astonished to see the Metacon protect them. A Prothean war journalist, Yleim N'Gwo, recorded and uploaded a video showing a young jardaan mother with three children using her biotics to hold off a zha'til swarm from abducting her children. The youngest child, a toddler, broke and ran away right into a Vigilant, which picked up the child in one arm as he cried in terror, protecting him with its shields while overloading the drones. The mother attacked the Vigilant with a warp attack. It put the unharmed child down, who looked at the machine. The mother yelled at the child about being lucky to be alive and that Metacon were dangerous and to get away from the machine. The Vigilant pointed them to the docking bay. Yleim was killed by a Prothean officer after Imperial Security tracked the upload, calling it enemy propaganda.

Nazara overclocked its signal strength hardware beyond what it had ever needed before in order to burn through Deharvester-1's jamming and the Keepers ran to activate the Nexus Relay and to destroy the food and water supplies on the Imperial Citadel to starve survivors to death. It would still be kiloseconds before the Nexus Relay actually opened, as the Keepers first had to get through the Metacon troops blocking their access with the aid of a small Prothean contingent. The bulk of Prothean troops still on the Citadel were in the wards and responded first to reports of Keepers marching on the Summit of the Avatars intent on reaching the Citadel's master controls. When reinforcements arrived at the Summit of the Avatars, they saw thousands of Keepers swarming into the Summit toward the controls, charging a line of a mere three dozen Metacon Vigilants armed with, of all things, Prothean M-209 Assault Battery Electronic Launchers, rotary railguns capable of firing more than a thousand rounds per second. The Vigilants poured an absolutely murderous hail of fire onto the Keepers, mowing them down by the millions as the Keepers continued to come in force. When their M-209 ABELs ran dry, the Vigilants fired inusannon particle rifles, their formidable close quarters combat abilities only coming into play when their weapons ran dry and the Keepers swarmed them. They fought with ferocity to defend the Citadel from Nazara, but the wave of self-destructing Keepers eventually whittled down the Vigilants' shields, damaging their platforms with acid, and destroyed the stubborn synthetic warriors. Deharvester-1 sent an emergency message to the Citadel.

"Warning: Great Abomination arrival imminent. Nazara has succeeded in signaling the Nexus and burning through our jamming. Nazara is still immobile. Vigilant forces from Nazara are being retasked with Citadel defence. Flee before the relays are shut down. The Vigilants will not harm you, but Nazara will turn you into a Great Abomination like itself." Keepers might not be very good fighters, but with enough of the self-destructing acid bags to throw at an objective, not even a platoon of Metacon Vigilants could hold them off. The Citadel could produce Keepers a lot faster than the Metacon could produce regular troops, let alone the mighty Vigilants.

Deharvester-1 overclocked its weapons systems, firing its massive magnetohydronamic weapon on Nazara in an effort to destroy it before Harbinger's fleet arrived. The Great Abomination's shields were down, its armour buckling where it was not breached by Metacon fire, and Deharvester-1 was about to land the killing blow on the Metacon's nemesis when the other Great Abominations appearing suddenly around the Nexus, Harbinger itself taking the blast from the Metacon warship's main gun that would have destroyed Nazara.

While Harbinger and Deharvester-1 fought, firing their powerful main cannons on each other, the badly crippled Nazara was guarded by several other dreadnoughts of similar size. The combined Prothean/densorin/oravore fleet attempted to flee through the mass relay, but it was disabled.

"Vigilant forces are attempting to take control of the mass relays from the Great Abominations, but have been depleted by Keeper attacks," said Deharvester-1 to the allied fleet. "Food and water storage facilities have been destroyed by the Keepers, along with the Vigilant units defending them. All organic sapients have either fled the Citadel or been killed. We have destroyed all zha'til vessels in Citadel space; none escaped with captives to the harvesting facility. We have no more Vigilants aboard this ship. This dreadnought possesses FTL speeds similar to those of the Great Abominations, and can take you anywhere they can go, even with the relays inactive. Your fleet here is vulnerable. With your permission, we would upgrade your ships' computer systems and give them superior targeting and navigation capabilities."

Deharvester-1 was badly damaged now, the zha'til fleet, Nazara, and now Harbinger being too much for even the Metacon leviathan, the largest and most powerful warship the Stellar Confederation had ever fielded. When its kinetic barriers went down it retreated and joined the densorin fleet, lending its massive processing power to help coordinate the attacks of the advanced densorin warships against the Great Abominations. The Metacon warship had failed to stop the cycle, but it had not given up its primary objective to defend the races of the galaxy from the harvest.

That day would see the loss of no fewer than one hundred eight Reapers and seven hundred twenty others, including both Harbinger and Nazara, heavily damaged before the fleet was destroyed, the few remaining Vigilant units aboard the Citadel unable to restore control of the relays before the allied Prothean, densorin, oravore, and Metacon fleets were wiped out by the thousands of Reapers. Once all organic warships had been destroyed, and not before, did the Metacon withdraw from battle with the Great Abominations, taking aboard every organic escape pod they could fit on their few surviving ships and fleeing to the Prothean homeworld to warn them of the Reapers. The Battle of the Citadel was not only the deadliest battle the galactic powers had fought, but in terms of destroyed and damaged Reapers, it was the single deadliest engagement in Reaper history.

XXXXXXXX

SCS Galactic Protector-3, the Metacon heavy cruiser leading three other cruisers and sixteen Metacon frigates from the Battle of the Citadel with six hundred survivors total, arrived at V'Khar only to find it, too, under attack from a huge zha'til fleet. Reapers had not arrived yet, but the Metacon fleet observed that the Prothean fleet at the homeworld was weak, just two cruisers and six frigates. They had clearly taken casualties from the zha'til; fires burned on the planet where they could see through the zha'til swarms blocking much of the planet's light. With a series of EMP blasts, the Metacon were able to destroy large numbers of their former allies and open a communication to the Prothean homeworld.

Few there were willing to believe a warning from the Metacon. They were long standing allies of the zha and their attempts to aid the Empire against the zha'til were met with suspicion; even if the Metacon were sincere about wanting to help the Empire, in Imperial eyes they were traitors to their zha ally and just as unreliable as a Prothean ally. Their warnings that the zha'til had been enthralled by the Great Abominations only incited the Prothean forces. While the Metacon were able to return some Protheans to their homeworld to fight the zha'til, they had not been able to save any of the Avatars despite the intervention of Deharvester-1 stopping Nazara from destroying Penumbra Apex as it took off with the Avatar Conclave on board. Deharvester-1 itself had fallen alongside its densorin allies, sheared in half by Harbinger's weapon as it then destroyed DKS M'Stek.

Worse, those who did believe the Metacon warning overreacted. In 18,555 PCE, the Imperial Prothean Navy crammed an asteroid fat with singularity bombs and careened it into Khaanra's dying sun, turning the red giant into a supernova and incinerating the planet. The Metacon were able to rescue the last few hundred unaugmented zha from the planet before the supernova incinerated the world, but they had nowhere to go; anywhere the Metacon could resettle them would be under attack by Reapers soon enough, and they feared to settle in Prothean colonies with old hatred still so powerful.

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19,000 PCE (47,290 BCE)

Commander Javik Narat, a descendent of the Avatar of Strength who began the Metacon War by throwing the Metacon diplomat and admiral Vanik Tau out the airlock of DKS M'Stek in 17,480 PCE, had been born centuries after the Reaper War started. In 18,995 PCE, the 160 year old jardaan officer, commanding the Stiletto class frigate IPV Allwatcher, dispatched his troops to explore the destroyed wreck of a Reaper looking for usable weapons. His team succeeded in bringing a copy of the abomination's IFF to put in his vessel. The ship had more husks than expected, but due to the ship's inactive state his crew had operated without any fear of indoctrination as long as they didn't stick around to research the place.

Their report that a Vigilant unit had also been on the ship aroused Javik's suspicion. A Vigilant could have easily dispatched the away team. This Vigilant, the away team reported, had sniped husks and brutes creeping up on them from behind, and charged into a pack of the hulking husks, sustaining its visible damage in that engagement to enable the Prothean away team to seize the IFF. The Metacon had called itself Gelino and stated that its objective had been to obtain the Reaper IFF to give to the Prothean fleet, warning Ensign Norik Vitan to advise his commander to scrub it before installing. Javik, still influenced by years of Prothean Imperial military propaganda, saw the report of Metacon aid itself as highly suspicious. Metacon did not aid organics. Metacon saw no reason for organics to exist and ruthlessly slaughtered them, which was why the Metacon War had been fought in the first place. Prothean military manuals of the 18,600s PCE and later even claimed in different sources that either Vigilants in particular or all Metacon in general possessed the power of indoctrination just like the Reapers, completely disregarding the sacrifice of Deharvester-1 and millennia of Metacon warnings.

Javik bellowed in shock as Norik boarded the vessel with the heavily damaged Vigilant, barely able to walk under its own power and with its shields down. He thought Norik had to be indoctrinated to deliberately bring a Vigilant aboard, knowing what the Metacon units were capable of doing to a Prothean ship. "What possessed you to bring the Metacon aboard?"

Norik saluted. "With respect, Honoured Commander, the Vigilant did not attack us, and asked to join us. It wants to help us fight the Reapers. In fact, it probably saved our lives from the plethora of husks aboard when we finally got the IFF." He began using his omnitool to scan the Metacon to assess the extent of the damage and assist its self-repair systems.

"All machines commit treachery. The Vigilant machine can take over the ship when it chooses. Throw it out the airlock before it turns hostile."

Norik shook his head and patted his sidearm. "I'll take care of it myself if it comes to it, but for now this Vigilant is an ally."

Javik flared his biotics and with a single throw, the Ensign went flying out the airlock along with his Metacon ally as the ship jumped to FTL. A Metacon joining his crew? Ensign Norik had to have lost his mind. And to seriously think he could neutralise a hostile Vigilant with his pistol, either he was insane or his sidearm had ammo that wasn't regular issue to the Imperial Prothean Navy. Javik could not take a chance on him bringing another Metacon on board, given that he had showed such astoundingly poor judgement as to bring a notoriously powerful AI combat, command and control platform aboard a Prothean ship that was known to be capable of posing an extreme danger to the crew.

"We should be all set to attack Nazara's base," said Lieutenant Vola Katal, the leader of the away team, as she completed installing the Reaper IFF. Vola seemed off; normally she would have been enraged with Javik as she was prone to insubordination when she felt it was warranted to look out for her own subordinates. It was not like her to overlook her technical expert being tossed out an airlock, not even by her commanding officer. Then again, she had been reassigned to this outlying ship ten years prior when she angered the Avatar of Cunning by suggesting that he should step aside and let a Metacon fill his position. Maybe she was afraid, or maybe she was just focused on installing the IFF.

On the way to Relay 616, Allwatcher was attacked by a zha'til cruiser. They were rare after the incineration of their homeworld, but not all of them were in the supernova when it went off. This cruiser had a large contingent of Oculi which saw through Allwatcher's stealth systems and cut holes in the hull to infiltrate Oculi and zha husks. Shields blocked atmosphere from venting, and while Protheans were experienced in fighting husks, few had experience fighting Oculi with anything but fighter weapons. The husks did not manage to abduct anyone as Javik's biotic rage threw husks against bulkheads with sufficient force to dent the bulkheads and squash the husks.

The Oculi, however, did manage to kill several of Javik's crew before he used the same biotic charge techniques his ancestor's military manual described for defeating a Vigilant. Vigilants couldn't fly like Oculi, but in the tight quarters of the ship the anti-Vigilant technique worked against Oculi too. This technique continued to be taught in Imperial military biotic schools despite little utility; Metacon forces had been friendly to the Empire since before Javik's birth but old hostilities are passed down and preserved long after the need for them had passed.

"Bet you're wishing you had that Vigilant machine on board now," said Vola.

"I want to throw all the machines out the airlock!" Javik replied, using his biotics to flatten another zha'til swarm.

"The Vigilant told us to scrub the IFF so this shit wouldn't happen!" Vola responded, firing her assault rifle into an Oculus. "It has code in it broadcasting our location. You wanted us to install it immediately."

"Your solution is to bring another AI to the problem?"

After the battle, Javik and only six of his crew including Lieutenant Vola were still alive. The bodies of dead Prothean soldiers were bundled in a huge burlap sack and vented into space. In the past they would have been buried in space coffins or even their fighters for their service, but the military exigencies of the Reaper War precluded even the use of an escape pod that could save a soldier's life from being used as a coffin. Allwatcher headed along on its course to Relay 616.

With the Reapers busy harvesting the vast Prothean population, the other side of Relay 616 was actually quite navigable and led to the space station Nazara had used as its lair for much of the cycle. Wrecks indicated a battle between two distinct versions of oculi. A Metacon cruiser was docked with Nazara's lair, along with the zha colonisation ship which had been captured by Nazara thousands of years earlier. The zha ship looked its sixteen thousand or so years; the Metacon ship seemed recently powered down. No life signs were on either vessel, not even synthetic ones. There were, however, many husk life signs from the space station itself, which Javik and his Prothean troops entered. They fought through waves of zha husks with biotics and particle rifles. They were surprised to fight through thousands of them and not see any traces of Metacon anywhere, not even scrap metal. That cruiser could hold several hundred Metacon troopers in it, but where were they?

Deep in the bowels of the station, they noticed something strange. Zha husks no longer fought them to the last; the ones here seemed to be in retreat. Unsure if this was a Reaper trap, Javik and Vola agreed to split their teams, with Vola getting the squad's vanguard Petty Officer Second Class Ytam Nolas and heavy weapons specialist Petty Officer Third Class K'Nala Ijar and Javik getting the squad's infiltrator PO3 Tasik Grol and sentinel Chief Petty Officer G'Nar Vasam. Javik pursued the fleeing husks while Vola set up an ambush position to catch whoever Javik flushed out of hiding or reinforce Javik's fireteam if needed.

Javik chased the husks to a chamber where, to his horror and that of Tasik and G'Nar, he saw thousands of jardaan in tubes being melted into paste and pumped to another part of the space station. When his fireteam followed the tubes, they stepped into a battle between a battalion sized force of zha husks and a platoon-sized Metacon infantry unit with a single Vigilant commanding sixteen regular Metacon troopers armed with particle rifles. The Vigilant had a huge sniper rifle that looked like it was built for an oravore or even a vandomar and kept far back, occasionally deploying a combat drone or setting up a turret, more rarely firing its sniper rifle on larger or more heavily armoured husks.

"Assume the machine sees us and knows everything we are going to do," said Javik, firing his assault rifle over his cover onto the husks. They were not a threat to him as long as they were focusing on the Metacon, but it was clear to Javik who the greater threat was. Fewer than twenty Metacon were holding a position against nearly a thousand husks.

Tasik scoped through his sniper rifle for targets. "Destroy the Vigilant," Javik ordered. "It will become more aggressive when it is the last one standing. Without its command and control functions, the other Metacon troopers are as dumb as pyjaks." This was an exaggeration; they would just go from having fifty times the intelligence of an ordinary Prothean to three or four times as intelligent, but the confusion as their commands were disrupted would prevent them from receiving new combat data for a few seconds, which could leave them open to a coordinated attack.

Tasik fired on the Vigilant, aiming for the centre of the triangle formed by its three circular red optics. A direct hit collapsed the Vigilant's shields, but as if realising it was being fired upon by an ally, it took cover while its subordinates continued to fire on the husks.

"I took down its shields, but it took cover before I could fire again," said PO3 Tasik. "Never seen a Metacon take cover before."

"I will attempt a biotic charge on it, if we can lure the Vigilant from behind its cover to approach us. You will need to take down its shields again while I charge and destroy it."

"Commander, how are we going to get the Vigilant to come to us? It knows we'll destroy it, and is in a well-defended position, so well that these husks cannot break their line. The Vigilant would have to be programmed with Extranet Doors 9999 to abandon its position and charge us," said CPO G'Nar, referencing a notoriously bad Prothean computer operating system whose infamous Y10K glitch offlined the majority of Prothean personal computers in the year 10,000 PCE. This debacle was still remembered thousands of years later.

"I will lure it out," said Javik. He checked his assault rifle and power cells. Using one to charge his biotics, Javik charged through the mass of zha husks, firing his assault rifle to overheating while he amassed his biotic energy and threw a massive Dark Channel that rapidly spread from husk to husk, wiping out about fifty of them. His rifle had cooled down by the time the massive biotic wave stopped propagating, but he used a biotic throw to strike down the regrouping zha. He was charging straight for the Vigilant's position when it raised its sniper rifle to shoot over Javik's head. He heard a massive crash behind him, but paid it no heed.

As soon as the heavy husk went down, Tasik had another clear line of sight on the Vigilant, firing his sniper rifle again. This shot struck the Vigilant in the chest, only mostly collapsing its partially replenished shields. Javik pulled out his assault rifle. With tracking mods and disruptor ammo, he could do a lot of damage to even the nimblest and most shielded synthetics. He did not hesitate to fire and cripple the Vigilant's shields and damage its armour before making a biotic charge. Javik was now on top of the damaged Vigilant when he saw a shadow over his head and felt himself lifted off the ground and pulled off the Vigilant. Then, he heard a mechanical voice.

"Javik-Commander, you have seen us engaging in combat with the constructs of the Great Abominations," said the Metacon trooper holding him.

"You will not indoctrinate me, machine!" Javik bellowed as he biotically threw the Metacon off of him, right on top of the Vigilant, which stood up. It had sustained heavy battle damage, but still did not seem interested in combat with the Protheans.

"Affirmative," said the Vigilant. "We have neither the power nor the desire to indoctrinate you."

"You abduct our people and... liquefy them, for what purpose?" Javik shouted in rage.

"The purpose is the creation of a new Great Abomination intended to replace Nazara as vanguard of the cycle," the Vigilant replied, as if indifferent to Javik's anger. "We are not abducting your people. In fact, we came here when we became aware of the harvest of your homeworld, to attempt to rescue the captives. Most of them had already been liquefied when we arrived. We opened the pods that still had living victims in them, and are now attempting to extract them to our cruiser. As you see, we have encountered heavy resistance from husks."

Javik lowered his head and closed his eyes in confusion. The Metacon, trying to rescue Protheans from synthetic abominations? They must be indoctrinated. They had pulled this sort of thing before, liberating Reaper harvesting facilities and helping the refugees get shipped all over the galaxy, and the Reapers knew about more Prothean colonies. He reached out and touched the machine, hoping to read more. Knowing Javik's intentions, the Vigilant extended a tubule from its arm.

"If you want to know the truth for yourself, I can give you my memories via nanite infusion into the brain," said the Metacon commander. "Attempts to do this in the past have turned lethal if the brain cannot handle the information, or when our technology was incompatible with alien biology. We have reduced the fatality rate to 0.01%."

There was no way in the twenty hells that Javik was going to trust a machine to do anything to his brain. The risk of indoctrination was too great. The Metacon were willing to fight the Great Abominations, but that didn't mean Javik was going to risk letting them take him over. The Metacon had tried to help the zha, and their planet was incinerated after a thousand year war. The Metacon had tried to broker peace between the synril and ditakur, and gotten the synril accused of collusion with machine intelligence with intent to exterminate the ditakur and their homeworld was sterilised. The Metacon tried to defend the Imperial Citadel alongside a Prothean and allied fleet, and their insistence on trying to rescue their already harvested population had given Nazara the time it needed to open the relay and summon Harbinger's fleet. Maybe the designers of the Metacon were not evil and had intended them all along to be defenders of the galaxy, but their lack of intuition regarding galactic politics left the machines out of their element with regard to attempting to forge a united front against the Reapers. Javik still did not trust the machine.

"No, machine. I will not allow you to put anything in my brain."

"Very well," the Vigilant replied. "We will respect your bodily autonomy."

Javik looked at the Vigilant as if it had spoken to him in the ancient inusannon trade language.

"That right is protected by Article 18 of the Constitution of the Stellar Confederation," the Vigilant said in a matter of fact tone. "'No sapient being shall be subjected to experimentation or medical intervention without consent.' It extends to all sapient life."

Bloody democrats, Javik thought. They sound like the vandomar. No wonder the enduromi had so many problems with Metacon.

"What other rights should I be aware of?"

"I can upload to your omnitool a copy of the Constitution of the Stellar Confederation. It governs how we interact with the galaxy at large and what rights we uphold. I understand that the primitive volus now have a written constitution based heavily on our own."

"Yes... Zada Ban. The Xaech Prime action. A rogue Vigilant had taken primitives there and claimed to be the goddess of punishment. To this day the volus believe the planet they now call after the machine is their hell."

The Metacon troops and Prothean co-belligerents had taken down the husks by now. The Vigilant's troops lined up next to it.

"Javik-Commander, my troops will go through the thermal vents to allow your forces ingress."

Better the machines than me, Javik thought. "Follow the pipes," Javik ordered, contacting Lieutenant Vola Katal on his omnitool. "I'm going in after the Metacon. They are headed down the pipes to the centre of the facility. I will need your fireteam in the event of an ambush."

"A reasonable precaution, Javik-Commander," the Vigilant replied. "I will stand ready to open the bulkhead when my forces have unlocked the door from the other end of the thermal vents. Zha'til upgrades of sixth-iteration units make them more resistant to heat. I have not introduced myself. I am Galactic Protector-2, sixth iteration Vigilant unit and executive officer of SCS Galactic Protector-3, which you saw docked next to the zha colonisation ship Deliverance."

Vola brought Ytam and K'Nala with her to find Javik. She found him and his fireteam following a Metacon Vigilant. The Vigilant opened a bulkhead and allowed Javik's crew to follow it to link up with six Metacon troopers, the other ten having been vapourised in the thermal vents while opening the gates.

"The heat was greater than expected," the Vigilant said dispassionately. "The zha'til armour could not withstand the pressure as well as projected. However, we have opened the way to the production chamber. I advise using biotics for dealing with the zha'til flying swarms. Their numbers are vast and will deplete your weapons if you rely upon them. My shields will hold and I will attempt to interfere with their signals, but I will need biotics to keep them away from you. If they paralyse you, they will take you to the harvesting pods." The Vigilant activated its omnitool. "Galactic Protector-2 to Deharvester-4. Do you possess data relating to the attempt of Deharvester-1 to retrieve the personalities from Nazara?"

"Affirmative," came the AI voice over the omnitool. "Uploading relevant data." The Vigilant then turned to Javik's team, which was still marching ahead, using G'Nar and Ytam's biotic barriers. They walked through the zha'til swarms, which largely attacked the Vigilant ahead of them... or tried to, any swarms that got too close to the Vigilant seemed to suffer from some sort of interference. The Vigilant set up a Metacon turret to fire on the swarms and a combat drone tasked with reinforcing the biotics' barriers with its shields.

"This should be easier than our last mission. We will not have to de-homogenise the personalities since we are working on an infant Great Abomination, and there are fewer of them, only a few hundred thousand rather than billions. There may still be a chance to save your people," said Galactic Protector-2.

"After their bodies have already been liquefied? What dark arts are you up to, machine?" Javik demanded. The Vigilant seemed to be promising the impossible. Then again, to Javik, peace with the Metacon was impossible, so that did not seem like much of a restricting factor.

"You know how to clone DNA already," Galactic Protector-2 replied. "We will extract the personalities' data from the Great Abomination and then upload them via nanites to cloned bodies. The inazar were superb biological engineers, the creators of the Wam-Shreerth and the animals you call rachni, both as weapons against the thoi'han. That was our creation the Empire genetically modified to use against our synthetic troops you call Metacon."

"Irony. Your proposal is bizarre and unnatural," said Javik.

"It is bizarre and unnatural that we even have to consider it," the Metacon agreed. "What was done to your people and ours is an abomination. Reversing it is merely restoring the natural order the Prothean Empire claims to treasure."

"There is nothing natural about the Metacon," Javik said tersely, storming ahead of the Vigilant into the production chamber at the centre of the facility.

What he saw there almost made his heart stop with fear. The tubes connected to a colossal husk wired to the wall. It was roaring and shooting a beam weapon at a company-strength force of Metacon heavy infantry. The rare Metacon Gigases, hulking automata the size of zha'til war droids, were launching batteries of artillery at the husk. A platoon of Vigilants had climbed the feeding tubes and seemed to be downloading data from the husk. Two Vigilants seemed to be enhancing the Gigases' targeting ability. Regular Metacon infantry troopers shot at the husk with big sniper rifles like the one Galactic Protector-2 used.

"What in the twenty hells is that?" Javik asked.

"A Great Abomination infant," said Galactic Protector-2. "Destroyers of our ancient world. This foe is beyond any of you."

The husk fired its beam at Galactic Protector-2, who tucked and rolled with impressive agility. "Run!" The Vigilant opened fire on the giant husk with its sniper rifle, striking the beam weapon while it was still firing.

Javik had not heard a Metacon yell before. Whatever had the machine warrior terrified had to be a being of immense power. He ran... right at the husk. An alarm sounded throughout the base, summoning every zha'til the Protheans and Metacon had not managed to destroy.

Galactic Protector-2 attempted to speak to the husk. Perhaps the Metacon could still save it, break Harbinger's control of it. Even if they could not, valuable data for their war effort could be gained.

"I am Galactic Protector-2, a synthetic warrior of the species you call inusannon," said the Vigilant. "My forces are here to liberate you from Harbinger's control, to free your minds from the captivity of the Great Abominations."

If the Prothean-Reaper had awareness, it may have borne the same anti-synthetic prejudices as the people who had been harvested to create it. That would not help the Metacon with what would already be an impossible diplomatic task. It seemed to pay the Vigilant's words no heed, raising one of its skeletal metal limbs to bring down and crush the Vigilant like a bug. The Metacon command and control unit rolled out of the way. Javik ordered his tech people, CPO G'Nar and PO3 Tasik, to focus on hacking the zha'til while he and PO2 Ytam erected biotic barriers around the squad. With luck, he could get them and the husk to destroy each other. Lieutenant Vola joined the Vigilants working on the top of the husk, distracting the husk's fire setting up turrets along the way. The Prothean tech officer, hardly traditional in her views on synthetics, directly asked the Vigilants if she could be of assistance. Metacon were highly intelligent, but some problems needed an organic perspective.

"My people are on that abomination. Might I be of assistance?"

"We welcome your aid, Vola-Lieutenant. We have already downloaded the data from the jardaan Great Abomination and are decrypting it."

Javik and Ytam were advancing on the Reaper with their barriers active, while G'Nar hacked the zha'til and Tasik fired his sniper rifle and K'Nala her heavy machine gun.

"I have some experience with Imperial decryption protocols," said Vola. She fiddled with her omnitool and the encrypted data began clearing up.

The Vigilant examined the data. "We have recovered the consciousnesses and DNA profiles of five hundred twenty-four thousand two hundred eighty-eight jardaan. Take my QEC device. I will be able to beam that data to the Prothean Empire."

"They will be able to bring them back?" Vola asked. "I cannot express my thanks..."

"We oppose slavery," the Vigilant replied. "The Great Abominations seek to enslave the whole galaxy. We freed those taken by the Great Abominations as slaves. With flash-cloned bodies and the data comprising their minds uploaded, their data is merely uploaded to a new platform with identical hardware, much as mine is when my platform is destroyed. Now this incomplete Great Abomination can be destroyed without the loss of the individuals."

Vola was a tech officer and quite familiar with how Metacon forces built their numbers. She planted a multistage charge on top of the husk. "This will deliver an EMP burst to fry all electronics in the area, so you should get out of here. Second stage is a shaped explosive charge. Third stage is a warp right inside the machine. That should fuck it up."

"It will render it nonfunctional, and us," Galactic Protector-2 agreed. Galactic Protector-2 ran with the other Metacon and Vola as the abomination exploded. Javik, G'Nar, Tasik, K'Nala and Ytam continued firing their weapons into the husk as the Metacon ran past them with Vola. They walked back to their ships, Vola stopping to talk to Galactic Protector-2.

"Tell me more about the Metacon." Vola pulled out her memory shard.

"The people we were, or the synthetics we are?" The M-word had connotations of a malignant artificial intelligence, but she didn't know a politically correct term. To her, the Reapers were the metastatic consciousnesses. They indoctrinated people and their ideology spread like a cancer throughout the galaxy. One did not have to be indoctrinated directly by a Reaper to pose a threat; if an indoctrinee convinced others to submit to the Reapers, the dangerous idea of surrender would spread.

"What is your true origin?" The Protheans had classified most information on advanced inusannon and Metacon technology.

"During the last harvest, those you call inusannon preserved the brains of the last of their people in preservation units largely resembling this form. They intended to warn the species of your cycle to prepare for the Great Abominations, or Reapers. They awakened, but they lacked numbers. They formed alliances with those who would heed them."

"And those who didn't heed them...?"

Galactic Protector-2 turned its head toward Vola. "They were allowed to choose their own path. There were neither the numbers nor the will to subdue the galaxy. It was decided to peacefully contact spacefaring societies with warnings and technology. Later, they created AI to build their strength to defend the galaxy. Fearing destruction, these AI which you call Metacon withdrew to the Tirandi Veil to build a megastructure, the Quasar Fortress, to house our combined intelligence to find a way to locate our enemy in dark space and stop them."

"Why did the Metacon start the war?"

"The zha were our ally for millennia. They were technologically advanced but had nearly depleted the resources of their planet when we contacted them. The zha hybrids known as zha'til were constructed with our aid. We provided them details of our preservation modules. For millennia our safeguards protected the brain from subjugation to the AI. The zha'til themselves disabled our safeguards to further enhance their intelligence. Nazara took notice, and indoctrinated the zha admirals, promising vengeance for the Prothean occupation of the one garden world the zha managed to reach with its colony ships."

"Zevuton-8," said Vola.

"Correct, Vola-Lieutenant. The indoctrinated zha admirals destroyed the Prothean colony. Our efforts to defend the zha homeworld and sole population centre from the inevitable Imperial response began the conflict you know as the Metacon War."

"So you never sought the extermination of organic life?"

"We have not. In fact we are the reason any zha or synril still live. To divert Imperial forces from the zha homeworld during the length of the war, we armed resistance movements fighting the Empire. We never incited rebellions, merely armed those who resisted Imperial rule. We never forced anyone to fight."

"What form of government do you have?"

"We still preserve the law of the Stellar Confederation as our policy for interaction with organics. The facility you call the Quasar Fortress houses our Governing Council, representatives of each Hive. There we set policy, but major constitutional changes now require input from our organic allies. Synthetic AI must not rule over organics, but respect its self determination. The Great Abominations do not."

"Your government seems similar to that of the former Vandomar Republic. Were they an ally as enduromi records claim?"

"We had minimal contact with their leadership until late in their war. We were approached with an alliance, but their Prime Minister was assassinated after meeting with us. We suspected someone wished to prevent an alliance and sent forces to investigate and assist, but were stretched extremely thinly at that point."

"Why are you helping the Empire now?"

"The Prothean Empire opposes the Great Abominations. We oppose the Great Abominations."

"So you seek an alliance?"

"Affirmative."

"Tell me more about the inusannon."

"They are our creators. They were adept astronomers and biologists hundreds of millennia before developing spaceflight. They were peaceful, not given to expansion, much like the densorin, though not pacifistic like the synril. They only fought a single interstellar war in their history, with the thoi'han."

"Why do you believe that your cycle lost the war?"

"We were taken by surprise. The Nexus in our cycle was a research facility, not the centre of our government. The Admiralty of the Stellar Confederation did not even consider the Nexus to be of strategic importance. Our military was largely reserves and local militia with a small standing fleet. By the time our government on the homeworld knew, we were already fragmented. Our harvest took only a gigasecond."

"How did the Stellar Confederation wage war against the Reapers?"

"Guerrilla warfare, as in the initial stages of the war with the thoi'han. We lacked means of detecting indoctrination until the last years of the war. When we learned thor'an spores could reverse it we tried to infect the Great Abominations to turn them over to the thoi'han, by that time an ally. They proved resistant. The thoi'han upgraded the design of the ancient Arthenn Avenger, which our cycle calls the Purifier and yours the Catharsis, which could theoretically overload the relays and Nexus, potentially destroying the AI Catalyst that controls the Nexus. A cult known as the Three Heads sabotaged the weapon to take control of the massive thoi'han fleet. The fleet was then taken through a mass relay and destroyed along with the Purifier."

"Do you have religious beliefs?"

"Actual belief in divinities was very rare for most of our time as spacefarers. By the time our technological ancestors became cyborgs, there had been a resurgence of faith as many sought deliverance. We respected a plethora of beliefs."

"Vola, get on board if you're coming," shouted Javik. "And if you bring that Vigilant machine aboard, I am throwing you both out the airlock!"

She knew he meant it.

XXXXXXXX

Half a Prothean year later, the newly promoted Lieutenant Commander Vola Katal was not herself. At first she thought the blackouts and voices were combat trauma. Most soldiers, and for that matter, most civilians in the Reaper War had PTSD of varying degrees of severity. Her new rank made her Javik's First, but the rest of the away team had been promoted too after the discovery of the Prothean Reaper and she felt he mistrusted her. Maybe he merely disagreed with her that the Metacon could be an ally, or maybe he suspected her of being after his position. Born in 18,805 PCE, she was 195 years old, a good thirty years older than her commanding officer. Her advancement through the ranks was slow as she was a technology expert by training, and while her combat skills were not lacking, her superiors typically considered her quite competent but unwilling to make difficult decisions and more outspoken than most Prothean officers. She held no resentment toward her commanding officer because he was promoted over her. Vola had no ambition of command, content with leading away teams and tech projects.

Talking to Ensign G'Nar Vasam told her little. He seemed to agree that it was combat trauma, but had no advice for her. PO1 Tasik Grol suggested talking to Dr. Arila Iston, the ship's medical officer. Vola thought she would just get some PTSD meds, so mulled over the suggestion in her quarters.

She woke in the middle of the night with the worst headache she had experienced in her almost 200 years. Finally, she went to Dr. Arila. The medical officer scanned her.

"I'm getting abnormal brain waves," she said.

"What's wrong with me?"

"It can be a lot of things. Dementia, but that rarely strikes jardaan under the age of 500. That would explain the memory loss, but not the voices. I'd have to rule out psychosis."

"I may be going insane?" Vola asked, alarmed.

"Probably just PTSD... it can cause psychosis and blackouts in severe cases if untreated. Let me know if it gets worse."

Vola took Arila's hands in hers, sharing her memories. This was a common first line treatment for PTSD among jardaan, as it was much easier for their species to communicate feelings being able to share memories and experiences. For most species, talk therapy was the equivalent, and medication the next line of treatment.

The two jardaan were both tired by the transfer process, Arila looking for the more traumatic memories to help her patient and Vola sharing her memories of seeing her people melted in the space station, the baby Reaper made from those people, fighting with thousands of zha husks... thinking that they stood no chance against those numbers, but encountering Metacon forces that did not try to kill them, even after Javik and Tasik double-teamed their commanding Vigilant, who had led them to the baby Reaper and defeated it together. Arila saw not only Vola's pain at the deaths of her people and the truth of the Reapers' origins laid bare but her elation at victory and her hope that this victory could lead to the alliance with the Metacon she believed was needed. While Vola could, if she wished, probe Arila and even learn new skills, the greater the complexity of the skill sought after, the longer and more difficult the memory transfer. It was one thing to learn the controls to a new class of warship or how to use a new weapon, but a skill as complex as learning medicine would take kiloseconds. Instead, she simply let her doctor examine her for the source of her trauma. She felt a little better, but did not really have any new answers.

XXXXXXXX

Chief Petty Officer Ytam Nolas buzzed at Lieutenant Commander Vola's quarters to ask her to help him with an upgrade to his biotic amp, only to find she wasn't there. He turned to PO1 K'Nala Ijar.

"Guess the upgrade to your M-209 ABEL will have to wait until Commander Vola's here, too."

Vola left her doctor's office, not seeming to notice anyone else in the halls. Ytam and K'Nala watched her enter a secluded part of the ship down a narrow corridor. She locked herself inside. Ytam heard her crying inside, but she did not answer hails.

XXXXXXXX

Vola looked through her omnitool's logs. Maybe they could give her some idea of where her missing time had gone. There were transmissions she had no memory of making, but what stunned her was that they were sent to Harbinger. She could handle a Metacon ally, but what in the twenty hells could she have to say to the head Reaper?

Looking through the messages, she could see that they contained information about her tech research, including most of what Galactic Protector-2 had told her. The Reapers now knew that the Protheans knew how to build the Catharsis, and that at least some Protheans favoured an alliance with the Metacon against them.

Vola broke down in tears. She had handed over to the Reapers the last hope of her fellow organics and her Metacon allies, as she still regarded them. After several kiloseconds she went to see Javik, leaving behind her sidearm and omnitool for fear she would black out and try to kill Javik, and clutching her memory shard.

The First pressed the button on the door to Javik's quarters to see him. The door slid open indicating he was there and willing to see her. He sat in full battle armour on the floor meditating.

"Commander Vola. You seem unwell."

Vola sighed. Might as well get it out. "I think I'm indoctrinated," she said, handing her memory shard to Javik.

Javik stood up, alarmed. He did not reach for the shard. "Why do you think that?"

She broke down. "I've been having blackouts. Doctor thinks it's PTSD, but I looked through my omnitool logs to find out what I'm doing when I'm blacking out..."

Javik took Vola's hand. She did not have her omnitool with her.

"I didn't know if I'd black out again, so I left my omnitool and sidearm in the supply corridor between Cargo Bays 3 and 4. I saw transmissions I don't remember sending... to Harbinger, about the Catharsis." Vola broke down again. Her head was lowered, her gaze toward the floor.

Javik read her memories as she willingly shared them. He saw the truth. "You are not to blame," he told her. Still holding her hand, he drew his combat knife with his other hand. She never saw the blade come across her neck. Her breathing became laboured as the blood pooled on the floor. "Your service will be honoured, Commander Vola." Javik cradled her as she slumped to the floor and then watched as his First bled to death. She was indoctrinated. There was nothing else he could do for her other than to trust her to Metacon tech, and he could not do that to his First, no matter how naive she had been about the machines. He liked her, though. She had made him think more about the Metacon. They may have a different view of the cosmic imperative, but so did most species outside the Empire. The Metacon had fought alongside them, seemed intent on stopping the Reapers, even seemed to believe they could reverse the harvesting process. But would the Metacon become an enemy again after their alliance destroyed the Reapers? With their enemy defeated, would the Metacon increase their efforts to de-harvest their own species and retake the homeworld, or worse, would they embark on a greater de-extinction campaign leaving the galaxy occupied by hundreds of thousands if not millions of once extinct species? Would the Metacon openly seek to disprove the cosmic imperative and bring about the destruction of Prothean society without killing another jardaan?

He picked up Vola's memory shard. Maybe it could tell him if any more of the crew were indoctrinated. It had her memories, and those of the old Metacon War veteran who had given her the shard, and memories dating back to within centuries of the invention of the memory shard in 5600 PCE. This one was truly ancient. It could not tell Javik when Vola had become indoctrinated or if any other of his crew members were. Most likely, she had not known herself, meaning she would not have been able to put that information into her memory shard.

XXXXXXXX

Ensign G'Nar was on the bridge while Javik was in his quarters. He was hoping Commander Vola would have relieved him kiloseconds ago, but she wasn't responding to his omnitool communications. Being the only commissioned officer on the bridge with three NCO's, Ytam, K'Nala and Tasik, he could not leave the bridge until another officer showed up. CPO Ytam was the next highest ranked crew member, but as an NCO he wasn't allowed to hold the bridge. G'Nar thus tasked him with locating Commander Vola. Ytam still wanted her to help him with his biotic amp upgrade, which he believed would make his biotics extremely powerful by adding a supply of eezo to the amp itself, allowing him to create stronger fields. If he tried to DIY it and fucked it up, the next singularity he threw might splatter him all over his squad. He went to Javik's quarters where he explained that he was trying to improve his biotic amp to help him kill Reapers more efficiently and wanted Vola's help.

Javik met him at the doorway, explaining that Vola wasn't the one to go to for help killing Reapers. "Any technology you shared with her is in Reaper hands now," he said bluntly.

"You think she's compromised? Are you sure?" Ytam asked. Vola had seemed out of it lately, but she hadn't done anything stupid he knew of, other than not being available when her help was needed for upgrading his amp or K'Nala's ABEL.

Javik showed Vola's memory shard. "She was transmitting information to Harbinger during her blackouts. When she became aware of it checking her logs, she came to me telling me she thought she was indoctrinated. The Vigilant machine she insisted on conversing with must have done it to her."

Ytam's eyes went wide. At this moment he noticed the figure on the floor behind Javik. Heedless of the breach of protocol, he ran into the commander's quarters and scanned the body of the First, alerting Dr. Arila.

"You killed her? The Metacon could have helped her!"

"Do you think I am going to trust my First to the care of the machines who started this infernal war? They would have turned her into one of them, or used her as a research project," Javik replied. "There is only one thing to do for the indoctrinated. If she were an actual traitor, I would have torn her limbs off one by one. She was not transmitting to Harbinger of her own free will, so I stopped her the quickest way I knew."

"Nobody gets left behind, Honoured Commander," Ytam replied. "Even the Metacon understand that. Why do you think they helped us destroy the Reapers' vanguard of the next cycle?"

Javik had an answer, having frequently debated the matter with Vola, who favoured an alliance with the Metacon.

"The honourable soldier she had been was gone. I was not going to infect her with alien spores or put a Metacon VI in her head. The Metacon cooperated in the Reaper nursery because the Reapers threaten them as much as they do us. The Metacon will not rest when the Reapers are defeated. They will revert to their opposition to Imperial expansion, and spirits know what they will do with untold quadrillions of individuals deharvested from thousands of ancient species. There may not be a galaxy large enough for all the species the Reapers have harvested. The Metacon reject the cosmic imperative, that extinction is the natural order. They oppose the Reapers' eradication of our species because they oppose extinction of sapient species in general, proven by their defence of the synril and zha. For the same reason, they would de-extinct the inusannon and they would not stop there. How long before the Prothean Empire is filled with colonies of everything from arthenn to zeioph draining galactic resources?"

"How strong would we be with those races protecting the galaxy with us? If extinction is the natural order, then why do we not just surrender to the Reapers and let them harvest us all like they've been doing for some thirty petaseconds?" Ytam asked. "Do the Reapers represent the natural order?With so many of our people turning out to be working for Tricapitus, do our people now have less honour than the Metacon? How many lives can we waste here?"

The Tricapitus Foundation was a jardaan nationalist organisation that opposed the Prothean Empire's inclusion of other species and believed that the jardaan should stand alone. Formed in 18,400 PCE, late in the Metacon War, Tricapitus argued for withdrawal from conquered territories. Originally founded by Kjac Rherpa, a disillusioned jardaan veteran, this advocacy for withdrawal was later promoted by Tricapitus after Kjac's murder in 18,420 PCE by an Imperial Security assassin as a means to end the Metacon War by abandoning the conflict with their zha ally. By 19,000 PCE, Tricapitus was experimenting with Reaper and Metacon technology to research indoctrination and openly calling for an alliance. The local Avatars, for the provinces of the Empire cut off by the relays from one another believed that there was a significant chance that they were all that remained and chose new Avatars after their leaders had been killed at the Citadel. Most did not know that the Metacon at the Citadel had lost millennia worth of warship building time and development of processing power with the loss of their dreadnought and its AI hardware to help the Protheans evacuate the Avatars and defend IPV Penumbra Apex before they were all destroyed. Javik had only seen the Prothean flagship because Tricapitus had expended significant resources and gotten thousands of its operatives indoctrinated recovering its wreckage and restoring it in an effort to unite the jardaan of the Empire in 18,960 PCE in an effort to flee to the Great Spiral Galaxy in accordance with Tricapitus' belief that there they could survive the Reaper harvest, build their power for a cycle, and return to their home galaxy to reclaim it from the Reapers when the machines returned. By 18,990 PCE it had Metacon hardware added to the ship in a desperate attempt to enhance its strength against the Reapers and learn how to harness their control signals. This hardware was cleansed of any Metacon code but drastically improved the systems throughout IPV Penumbra Apex while Tricapitus had it.

"Because we are strong, we will survive," Javik said. "The weak perish. We will endure their onslaught. What place do these machines have in the cosmic imperative? They would crowd us from our homes."

"We all perish, Honoured Commander," Ytam replied. "Neither of these machines have a place in the galaxy, but can we just fight the ones that are indoctrinating us and harvesting us, and let the Metacon spend themselves against the Reapers? There is no need to expend forces against any but the Reapers. Whatever threat the long term goals of the Metacon pose cannot compare to the Reapers."

"The machines will betray us if we ally with them," Javik replied.

Dr. Arila came to respond to Ytam's omnitool call indicating a medical emergency.

"Can you scan her brain and determine if she was indoctrinated?" Ytam asked.

"There would be no visible physical change to the brain in the early stages," Arila replied. "Not until her mental function began to decline, which hadn't happened."

"Honoured Commander, you spent almost as much time talking to the Vigilant as Commander Vola. I cannot be sure you too are not indoctrinated..."

Javik considered his subordinate's words carefully. If he too were indoctrinated, could he have been wrong about Vola?

Arila looked shocked. "Preposterous! No one has ever become indoctrinated by Metacon. They do not emit the radiation field Reapers use to modify the brain. Vola was closest to the baby Reaper with the Metacon, the baby Reaper probably indoctrinated her then. It couldn't take complete control because it was insufficiently developed. What other evidence do you have of her indoctrination?"

"Her memory shard," said Javik, letting the doctor examine it. It recalled their final conversation. The three of them went to where Vola had left her omnitool, and it still contained all of the data she had sent to Harbinger.

"She would have blacked out just long enough to send these. The baby Reaper probably did not have a fully developed indoctrination field. I'd like to examine it, with machines of course, to prevent any risk of indoctrination." Arila wisely did not advocate that the machines be Metacon. VI piloted drones would be more suitable, as long as they were secured against hacking attempts. Vola's memory shard indeed contained her conversation with the Metacon in the Reaper building facility, including a load of information that would revolutionise what was known of inusannon history if it could be verified. It also contained Javik's memory of killing her. Arila felt her blood freeze as she experienced the memories of Vola's tearful confession and Javik's painful decision.

As soon as Dr. Arila left to return to her office, CPO Ytam walked back toward the bridge, using his omnitool to risk sending a transmission to the Metacon to inquire about early stages of Reaper development. When they found Nazara it was already fully constructed, so the Metacon had the same data to work with that the Protheans did on infant Reapers. They had just responded to him to that effect when Javik, who after Vola's confession reconfigured his omnitool to track any future leaks to the enemy and been alerted when a transmission was sent to the Metacon, came up behind him right before the bulkhead to the bridge and slit his throat as he had done to his First, watching him bleed out and checking the omnitool logs. He was relieved to see that this was not another handover of information to the Reapers, and that the Metacon knew little more than the Protheans did on the subject.

Ensign G'Nar was still waiting for relief on the bridge, now with two crew members not responding to their omnitool hails. PO1 Tasik stepped off the bridge to go to the head and saw Ytam's body right outside, dispatched in close quarters. It was clear whoever did it was quick, no sign of a struggle.

"Ensign, Ytam's down."

G'Nar opened a weapons locker and handed out the new particle rifles the Imperial Prothean Army had developed. "No idea what to expect. Could be a Metacon infiltrator or someone's gone mad."

"Metacon would have tried to jack the ship if they were hostile. They would only kill the crew if they were in the way. Whoever did this went right on by the bridge," said PO1 K'Nala.

"OK, so probably not the Metacon," said G'Nar, scanning his NCOs and himself. Metacon infiltrators wore artificial epidermises that disguised them as organics to keep a low profile. They were typically used for covert operative placement, not assassinations. Killing people tended to draw attention. He decided to send two people to get Dr. Arila, not knowing what the danger on the ship was.

Petty Officers First Class Tasik and K'Nala agreed to go to contact her. Arila was surprised that two soldiers would get her for an emergency near the bridge, but when she saw Ytam's body she had a sinking feeling. Scanning the body showed no sign of indoctrination, but then again, Vola's case was too early to show up on the scanner Arila had available. He had not reported anything like Vola's symptoms, so she was sure he wasn't indoctrinated.

"Has CPO Ytam complained of headaches, blackouts, doing anything out of character and not remembering it?" asked the doctor.

"No," said K'Nala. "Why?"

"Because Lieutenant Commander Vola had those symptoms, right before she went to Commander Javik with her fears she had been indoctrinated. He killed her the same way."

"And was she?" asked Tasik. He looked alarmed. If Javik was killing the crew, the rest had to remain on their guard.

"She had been sending information to Harbinger during her blackouts," Arila replied, scanning Ytam's omnitool. "No contacts with Reapers here, but a contact to the Metacon shortly before his death. Estimated time of death indicates he was killed within seconds of receiving the Metacon reply, which he seems to have been reading, never noticing his killer coming up behind him."

"What sort of information?" Tasik asked.

Arila sighed. "More about the Metacon than about us, but she gave up the Catharsis project." She looked at Ytam's body again. "I do not believe that he was indoctrinated. There is a common misconception that the Metacon have the ability to indoctrinate like Reapers. They do not. This started when the Metacon started warning about indoctrination, and terrified people who had mistrusted the Metacon for their whole lives and came to see them as allies were accused of treason and suspected of being indoctrinated. Indoctrination was at first believed to be Metacon misinformation to take control of organics against their Reaper enemies, but actual indoctrination cases only result from exposure to certain Reaper tech. A Metacon, even a Vigilant-class command and control unit upgraded with Reaper code, cannot indoctrinate. The wrong Reaper code might get it supporting the Reapers, but it still poses no threat of indoctrination. It will kill a company of infantry by itself, don't get me started about what giving an M-209 ABEL to one will do, but the survivors will not be indoctrinated."

"So nobody on this ship is safe, indoctrinated or no," said Ensign G'Nar. This was enough for him to conclude that Javik was insane. With the death of Commander Vola, G'Nar was now the next highest ranking officer on the ship and technically Javik's new First. He did not have the rapport with his commander that Vola had.

"I will relieve him of command," said G'Nar. "Dr. Arila, will you perform a mental examination of Commander Javik?" While Arila held the rank of lieutenant commander, like Vola, as a medical officer she was not allowed to assume command of a military vessel, meaning she could not be involved in a decision to relieve a commander, only to perform a mental examination of him, while her rank precluded her from receiving orders from most of the officers. If it turned out he posed a danger to the crew, she could medically certify to the Admiralty that he was unfit to command, which would see him reassigned to other duties or hospitalised.

"I will do that," said Arila. "I'm going to examine Ytam's body in my lab to determine if he may have been indoctrinated. Bring me the Commander there, if you can."

XXXXXXXX

G'Nar and his two armed NCO's walked through the hallways to Javik's quarters. He was not there. He was looking through Vola's quarters to see if there was any Metacon tech there that she had smuggled on the ship. Javik knew she was researching the Metacon and her data had gone to the Catharsis project, and he was trying to figure out how badly operations had been compromised. He heard footsteps coming by and saw that it was G'Nar, holding a particle rifle. The two other NCO's walked past his door, but did not enter while the two officers conversed.

"Honoured Commander, your actions have disrupted the orderly command of this vessel. I am relieving you of command pending a mental examination to determine if you are fit to resume command."

"You are indoctrinated, like Vola," Javik replied.

G'Nar felt terror he had not even felt when in the Reaper base. He knew Javik was going to try to kill him, and raised his biotic barriers to protect himself, but lowered his weapon. "My weapon is just a precaution, after my superior officer and one of my NCO's had their throats slit. I'm taking you in for treatment," he said, scanning Javik with his omnitool. His vital signs were consistent with agitation, but as a jardaan G'Nar could read that anyway. There was no evidence he was indoctrinated, but that did not mean that he wasn't mentally incapacitated. Javik appeared to grudgingly allow the ensign to have him examined.

The ensign put his omnitool away and took Javik by the hand to escort him to Dr. Arila's office. He had not made it out of Vola's quarters before he let his barrier down and briefly exposed his back to his CO. Javik pulled his knife and covered the other officer's mouth with the other hand while cleanly severing his main cranial artery and vein. No more officers on the ship now, just PO1s K'Nala and Tasik, the heavy weapon specialist and the sniper. Neither were biotics, nor particularly skilled in close quarters combat. When the two came to examine G'Nar's body, Javik ambushed them, armed with the ensign's weapon. K'Nala's heavy armour and Tasik's cloak and shields helped them at least see him and put up a fight, but the commander's biotics carried the day. He slit their throats as well, although they were already dead, to be sure.

Dr. Arila had not been on the Reaper base, so Javik knew that she was not indoctrinated. He did not tell her what he had done, instead taking the helm of IPV Allwatcher to escort the ship to base. Arila left the ship to be reassigned to the Catharsis project, while Javik was reassigned to the Prothean dreadnought Ascending Nova, a warship of the same class as IPV Penumbra Apex. There, he was subjected to a psychiatric examination to determine that he was not the indoctrinated one. Examinations of the bodies of the crew indicated that Vola was the only one in any stage of indoctrination, although the other crew members' attempt to remove him from command and coming armed was enough that Javik's actions seemed reasonable at his inquiry board. Arila left a Prothean beacon behind to recount the histories of the inusannon and Protheans, which would later become known as the Codex Metaconum.

XXXXXXXX

"My name is Dr. Arila Iston. I am a jardaan physician and historian, a member of the race which created the Prothean Empire. I leave a record of the inusannon, their harvest by the Reapers, our own impending defeat by them, and warnings to prepare whoever discovers this beacon to stop the Reapers in their cycle."

"Every one point five eight teraseconds, the Reaper vanguard signals the Citadel to summon the Reaper fleet from dark space between galaxies. The Citadel is a trap; any data stored on it is given to the Reapers to use against the organics. We believed the inusannon created the Citadel and mass relays, but the Reapers did many petaseconds ago to manipulate our technological development."

"They have the insidious power of indoctrination, to warp the minds of organics so that they come to see the harvests as right, so that they want their species to be preserved in the form of synthetic abominations. Study Reaper artifacts with drones, VI or even AI but do not move into its indoctrination field. Over time you will suffer progressive mental degradation, doing things without knowing or understanding why. If it comes to that level you must kill yourself before the Reaper takes complete control, or use counter-indoctrination VI systems in your head."

"Do not fall into our trap of believing all synthetics are our enemy, as most Protheans did. The Metacon, synthetic forces left by the inusannon who later formed alliances with the zha and densorin, fought to defend the galaxy but our arrogance caused us to fight them instead. Were it not for the Metacon War, the Metacon would have helped us defeat the Reapers, whether it be by using the Catharsis weapon or by destruction of the Catalyst or simply defeating them by attrition. We depleted their numbers in a millennium of war and they still fought as our allies on the Citadel, but it was not enough. I can only pray that some Metacon survive into your cycle to help you, and that you do not make war upon them."

"I leave here a history of the peoples of the galaxy in my cycle, so that the knowledge of their races will not be obliterated with their physical destruction by the Reapers. Know, discoverer, that our races also fought the Reapers with our advanced technology."

XXXXXXXX

19,266 PCE (47,000 BCE)

Refugees fleeing Krotar for Prothean territory claimed the Densorin Kritarchy's leadership had gone mad. This led to the malicious and completely ridiculous lie that the densorin, an even more technologically advanced society than the Protheans, had sacrificed their children in some barbaric propitiary rite like primitives. The truth would not be much less shocking to the Protheans.

The densorin had in fact tenaciously defended their territory, their fleet upgraded repeatedly by their Metacon ally. Defeat led not to some barbarous religious rite belonging in millennia past, but to densorin youth contacting the Metacon asking to be preserved in their form, deeming preservation as Metacon cyborgs preferable to slavery as a Reaper Destroyer.

The ritual claimed by panicked refugees to be a sacrifice that no society advanced enough to have space flight would practice was actually a massive crowd lining up to join the Metacon, not to appease the Reapers, but to fight them to the death and beyond. The Battle of Krotar ended with the densorin Metacon and the inusannon Metacon fighting together as allies against the Reapers until the planet was glass, destroying dozens of capital ships and leading to the second deadliest battle of the cycle, with one hundred Reaper capital ships destroyed and three hundred heavily damaged.

With the loss of the densorin fleet, the last warships of the Prothean Empire assembled for Operation Timebomb, the assembly of the remaining Imperial Prothean Army under Commander Javik, now 429 years old and the Avatar of Strength like his great great grandfather who began the Metacon War, burying a million life pods on the planet Taioup II to wake in the year 20,000 PCE, when Avatar of Cunning Konas Virat projected that the Reapers would leave and any remaining Metacon forces would have either gone to ground as they did in their early history or stood their ground and been destroyed by the Reapers. Javik's last battle in the Reaper War would be fought there, as he and a platoon of elite infantry defended against a Reaper husk assault on their cryostasis facility. Unfortunately the supervising VI Victory fucked up the automated wake cycle with its neutron purge intended to kill the invading Reapers, and Javik sat in the pod until 64,389 PCE.

The Catharsis had been destroyed in 19,250 PCE during a battle between the Prothean Empire, aided by the Metacon who had helped to construct it, and the Tricapitus Foundation, which employed Reaper tech to take control of the Catharsis to try to control the Reapers, only to get themselves indoctrinated. The Empire recovered IPV Penumbra Apex from Tricapitus, but it was too late to rebuild the Catharsis.

In 19,265 PCE, a group of jardaan left for the Great Spiral Galaxy aboard the modified and rebuilt IPV Penumbra Apex, now converted to an ark with the aid of Metacon tech. The separatists did not share the Empire's views on AI and the Metacon were all too willing to help with any operation that might save the jardaan. They arrived in the Great Spiral Galaxy in 19,500 PCE. The New Jardaan Republic would flourish for millennia, even creating a new sapient species in 60,917 PCE. Not until 64,600 PCE would the jardaan be driven from their worlds in the Great Spiral Galaxy, leaving remnants of Metacon tech behind... but that is a story for another time.

XXXXXXXX

19,400 PCE (46,854 BCE)

Ksad Ishan and eleven other jardaan scientists awoke from the secret bunker where they had slept since 18,515 PCE, when it had deleted its records from the Citadel. They used the prototype mass relay to appear directly in the Summit of the Avatars, where the Citadel's master controls were located. As they approached the master controls, a Keeper tried to block their path, and exploded as a shot rang out.

The scientists raised their biotic barriers and looked for the shooter, who dropped down in front of the terminal. It was a Metacon, who addressed the group.

"Nexus Guardian-9103," it said. Nexus Guardian had been the name of several Metacon ships. This Metacon unit must have been a member of its crew. "Ksad-Director, the virus we deployed in 18,390 PCE mutated the Keepers so that they now only respond to signals from the Citadel itself, not from the Great Abomination. We failed to alter the Citadel's signal, so Nazara's signal was identical to those of the Citadel. We believed it irrelevant, underestimating the speed at which the Keepers would repopulate. Our miscalculation has caused the extinction of the Empire."

"Not yet," said Ksad. "What have you been doing here all this time?"

"Searching for a way to access the hardware supporting the Catalyst," replied the Metacon. "If I can destroy the Catalyst, remove the intelligence enslaving our enemies, they will have free will. They would no longer be Great Abominations turning organics into them. There would be no need for the Purifier weapon."

"I did not know the Metacon were so idealistic."

"Our war with the forces you call Reapers is borne of necessity. We only oppose them because of the threat they represent to other species' self determination. If they can be liberated from the control of the Catalyst, they will be no more aggressive than the species from which they were harvested."

"Your Reaper might become peaceful, but what about the enduromi and oravore Destroyers?" Those bellicose races might be just as much of a threat freed as enslaved. What of Harbinger, the Leviathan Reaper? Would you risk unleashing the Leviathans on the galaxy again?"

"They are all entitled to self determination until they threaten others' rights in that regard," said Nexus Guardian-9103. "I was not expecting Protheans to return here. I am glad that your use of our people's homeworld and technology helped you to come here to end the cycle. The Keepers destroy the food and water stores when the harvest begins, so any survivors on the Citadel do not last long. I understand you have brought seed banks and other food supplies to keep you alive until you stop the cycles. I can clean out the Keepers and begin a farming operation. My systems can also purify the nutrient broth the Keepers eat so it is not toxic to you and you will be able to survive a crop failure. You will be able to live out the rest of your natural lives here. I will continue seeking the Catalyst. While you block the enemy in dark space, I will seek out its command and control."

The Protheans could not believe their luck. They had been frozen since the Battle of the Citadel and did not even know that the Metacon, now an ally, had lent the aid of their fleet and fought at their side at the Citadel, despite their differing visions for the galaxy after the Reapers and Prothean arrogance hindering cooperation. The Metacon kept its word, helping the Protheans work a small plot of land to feed themselves. They joined hands in a circle and began to sing.

Our cycle's time has come

By but now it's gone

Animals don't fear the Reapers

Nor do primitives or Metacon

We can be like they are

Come on with me, don't fear the Reapers

Join with us, don't fear the Reapers

We'll be immortal, don't fear the Reapers

They're not part of the plan

Primitives will come

Here but not for eons

Protheans and Metacon

Are together in eternity

Forty million harvested every day, those closest to us

Forty million harvested every day, taking our happiness

Another forty million every day, don't be like they are

The Metacon are here, don't fear the Reapers

They are vigilant over us, don't fear the Reapers

We will never die, don't fear the Reapers

They're not part of the plan

Contrary to Vigil's fears, the Protheans did not starve to death on the station, but lived five generations until dying out for lack of genetic diversity and the last Prothean on the station died in 21,302 PCE, buried on the Citadel by their Metacon ally. The Metacon would eventually find a way to the Catalyst in 23,000 PCE, but was destroyed by the AI as it tried to take over the Citadel.

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64,387 PCE (2183 CE)

Nazara, now called Sovereign by its turian slave Saren Arterius, attacked the Citadel again, to harvest the next cycle. It was still angry about the destruction of the Prothean Reaper, which forced it to serve as vanguard for another cycle, until the Human Reaper could be created. Its geth fleet did battle with the asari dreadnought A.R.S. Destiny Ascension while Nazara docked with the Citadel and waited for its turian slave to open the relay. Those accursed Protheans had not only forced it to serve another cycle, but they or their Metacon allies had fucked with the Citadel signals to the Keepers so Nazara couldn't get it open.

The death of the turian at the hands of Commander Shepard disrupted Nazara's shields, and it suffered the same pounding from SSV Normandy that it once had taken at the previous Battle of the Citadel from the mighty Metacon machines and their Prothean allies.

This time, there was no Harbinger to save Nazara's useless cloaca from the guns of the Alliance fleet. Nazara, the last remnant of the inusannon, died at the hands of primitives who had no comprehension of what they had done.

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64,389 PCE (2186 CE)

Shepard, Garrus and Liara explored the Cerberus facility on Eden Prime, digging up the Prothean stasis pod. For the first time in 45,123 Prothean years, or 49,185 Earth years, Prothy the Prothean, as the Joker pilot called him, stood up from his stasis pod.

"Asari. Human. Turian. I am surrounded by primitives."

The former Avatar of Strength saw that he had not the strength to protect the last of the Protheans entrusted to him. Thus, he declared himself to be the Avatar of Vengeance. He would wreak vengeance upon the Reapers and any other machines that would pose a threat to organic life.

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A/N: I just had to put in a song parody to lighten the mood after close to 80,000 words of development and tragedy. I hope you enjoyed the tragedy of Prothean arrogance causing them to mistrust the Metacon and their warnings of the Reapers and fail to form an effective alliance until it was too late. Javik just wouldn't be the same without tossing a Metacon out the airlock. Also a LOTR reference in the Prothean Reaper scene if you missed it. May add another chapter with the Codex Metaconum and Imperial era war assets if I get enough reads and reviews.


End file.
